The beginning of Definition Health’s digital patient pathway
Driven by a strong desire to increase efficiency, reduce unnecessary outpatient appointments and last-minute surgery cancellations, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Mr Sandeep Chauhan MBBS FRCS FRCS (Tr & Orth.) and Consultant Radiologist Dr Rosie Scott MBBS FRCR founded Definition Health in 2018. The primary aim of Definition Health is to improve outcomes, increase efficiency and enhance the patient experience.
Together with a team of 10 NHS consultants and working with expert software developers, they created the Definition Total Surgery Solution, delivering an “End-to-End” process for surgical patients and achieving these aims.
Why the need for digital patient pathways?
12 million patients need a pre-operative assessment before surgery in UK every year
The current backlog of over 6 million UK patients awaiting elective surgery due to the COVID-19 pandemic
£35-72 per patient pre-assessment costs for the NHS
1.4 million cancelled procedures for NHS
£30 million in legal claims against NHS for failure to communicate information
How do we achieve these goals?
Together as a family of connected solutions, the Definition Health total surgical solution digitises the whole surgical journey – maximising cost savings and capacity for the hospital – while providing continuity of care for the patient and ensuring accuracy and clarity of communication at every step.
Each solution can be deployed independently to digitise key steps in the surgical pathway, relieving pressure and creating efficiencies and additional capacity at specific stages:
• Streamline information sharing and enhance speed of consultations – Definition Connect
• Streamline pre-operative assessment – Definition LifeBox
• Enable self-reporting during post-operative recovery – Definition Recovery
Hospitals can add and integrate modules as their needs for additional capacity evolve, generating efficiencies at each phase of the patient surgical pathway.
The proven benefits of a digital patient pathway
Efficiency
60% reduction in face-to-face assessments
3,060 OP appointments avoided
Average time saving per patient – 1.92 hours
Satisfaction
92% of health assessments completed at home
96% patient satisfaction
91% found patient videos useful
Cost saving
£150k in hospital savings in one year
Reduction in on the day cancellations and missed appointments
Multiple litigation cases prevented
Total surgical solution in action
Our digital patient pathways are used in multiple hospitals across the UK, with planned expansion overseas in 2021.
When the COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread lock-down in 2020, Definition LifeBox & Definition Connect were an integral part of the hospital’s ability to continue working remotely and support patients while unable to treat them face to face.
Using Definition LifeBox, South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre was the fastest recovering hospital in London.
Benefitting NHS and Private sectors, our solutions are proven to increase efficiency, satisfaction and offer huge cost savings.
Definition Health was chosen by NHS England through the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) as one of only twelve innovations (and the only surgical solution) to help the NHS recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. We are proud that throughout the pandemic our systems have supported the NHS and Independent Sector in the remote pre-assessment of surgical patients across multiple specialities including cancer services.
Our Partners
Hospital Patient
“It’s so much better than the old system – I felt so comfortable doing my assessment at home and had so much more information. I was well prepared and felt much calmer”.
Hospital Matron
“It’s so well designed and it’s child’s play to use”.
Hospital Anaesthetist
“The consistency and comprehensive assessments are impressive but it’s the first system I have ever seen that conditions patients for consent and anaesthesia”.