Smartphone app to help rural healthcare wins two awards

A SMARTPHONE application which helps clinicians reach and treat patients has won two national awards.

The app was created to help clinicians from the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service (EMRS) reach and treat patients in remote areas of rural Scotland.

It also provides members of the EMRS access to standard operating procedure and information on the availability of specific facilities in remote areas - allowing teams more time to organise triage and transfer of seriously ill patients.

The app has won the EHI award for best use of mobile technology in healthcare and the NHS Scotland eHealth award for “Best NHS Scotland use of Mobile technology”.

Paul Campbell, Consultant, Retrieval Medicine, Emergency Medical Retrieval Service, was involved in the creating and developing the app, said: “Every second counts in emergency situations and the app helps me and the team at the EMRS quickly gather the information we need to help save lives.”

The EMRS app provides rural clinicians with 24 hour access to a consultant in emergency medicine or intensive care with specialist aeromedical training.

The EMRS team are able to respond, via plane or helicopter, within minutes of a request and can also provide specialist advice to rural clinicians.

EMRS is a collaboration between NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the Scottish Ambulance Service, funded by the Scottish Government.