App will help patients and carers
App offers NHS patients in Manchester the chance to digitally manage their care plans
Manchester’s Clinical Commissioning Groups have engaged creative agency and social enterprise SharpFutures to help deliver a tablet application to streamline budget planning for patients and carers. The project brings together The Sharp Project tenants TouchSoft Limited and social enterprise SharpFutures to create the free app designed to help those with long-term health care needs.
Aimed towards those who may struggle with paper forms due to their physical conditions the app, when launched, will allow tablet users to film or record themselves answering questions and plan their own long term care budgets. “It is early days but we are really excited by the new digital element to the project. Detailed calculations and thorough responses are required from the patients and carers before we can provide them with their own funds and filling in forms can often be a hurdle.
We therefore came up with the idea of a support planning app designed to ease the process whilst making the system more robust,” remarked personal health budget lead Matthew Fairhurst. SharpFutures director Rose Marley commented: “The Clinical Commissioning Groups’ relationship with The Sharp Project means they can use of one of the most cutting-edge digital resources in the North West for their app.” Richard Wylie, TouchSoft director, added: “TouchSoft are delighted to be working in partnership with Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups and SharpFutures on this project. We’re looking forward to the application making a real difference in the quality of care offered to patients.” The app will be freely available to patients taking part in the apps trials in August 2013.
