Storm ID wins funds for COPD care project

Edinburgh-based digital agency Storm ID is part of a project awarded £750,000 to develop care for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients, with hopes of saving the NHS more than £1 billion.

Storm ID director Paul McGinness hopes the project will act as a catalyst for other digital health innovators. Picture: Contributed

The project, with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and Seattle-based risk prediction platform KenSci, aims to reduce hospital admissions by remotely monitoring COPD patients’ symptoms, physiology and treatment in their homes.

It will then use machine learning algorithms to target patients at high risk of a COPD exacerbation, the second most common cause of emergency hospital admissions in the UK.

If the service is successfully scaled across 20 per cent of the highest risk patients, Storm ID forecasts it could save the NHS £1.4bn by reducing one emergency hospital admission for each patient per year.

Paul McGinness, director at Storm ID, said he hoped the consent-driven exchange of patient data would “act as a catalyst for other digital health innovators in future”.

Chris Carlin, consultant respiratory physician at NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, said: “We’re excited by the opportunity to deliver our vision for a digital infrastructure and service innovations which will enable early detection of potential COPD deteriorations in our highest risk patients.

“We know these COPD interventions provided individually reduce hospital admissions, improve quality of life and are cost-effective, but the challenge is to realistically deliver them in combination to patients who need them most, before an acute crisis and emergency hospital admission.”