Mr Graeme McLeod¹, Professor Fiona Wood¹, Mr Aaron  Berghuber¹

¹Fiona Stanely Hospital – WA Department Of Health  , Palmyra Dc, Australia, ²Fiona Wood Foundation, Palmyra Dc, Australia

Abstract:

BACKGROUND

Mobile devices provide many solutions to aid and manage clinical decisions and workloads. They’re readily accessible and offer quality forms of instant communication. Smartphones and social media are increasingly being used for clinical handovers and to share images of patients.  With no record of consent and bypassing the medical record, this practice breaches statutory law, hospital policy, and patient privacy and further exposes clinician & hospital to unacceptable risks / penalties.

The Mobile Image Communication Exchange (MICE) mobile platform, aims to be an efficient and secure solution to these issues.

METHOD

A state-wide Burns Unit in Australia together with CSIRO developed MICE, using an agile approach in the clinical environment; clinicians and software developers worked side by side providing constant feedback and rapid software updates. Key stakeholder engagement assisted in directing project.  User responses were collected after each occasion of use.

RESULTS

Proof of Concept:  126 images (45 patients) with consent and clinical correspondence were captured through MICE, and sent to the medical record – not stored on clinician’s phones.  All images were rated by clinicians as adequate quality to make a clinical decision.

MICE project has since been nominated for 2018 WA Health Excellence Award and a further pilot with a view to vertically scale across Health has been granted.

DISCUSSION

MICE has shown mobile technology can be safely used to expedite clinical care by providing a secure platform where images can be safely captured/shared. MICE facilitates: transfers, ongoing management of wounds /scars and is transferable across disciplines.

Biography:

Graeme has been working in the State Adult Burns Unit since May 2015, as an MDT Officer, and also as a member of the Digital Innovation Team with the Fiona Wood Foundation.  Graeme’s role has supported the introduction of innovative quality improvement solutions to improve the efficiencies of the Unit, the Hospital and the Department.