The COPD Smart project of Streekziekenhuis Koningin Beatrix (SKB), with EmmaCOPD, has won the Health Valley Bridge Prize of the year 2022! This award is given annually to the most promising project in the field of healthcare innovation. Earlier, the project had been nominated by Health Valley’s expert jury as one of the final three finalists. Then people could vote at home for their most promising project. This final took place during the Health Valley Event on March 16. After a great pitch by Lisette Drenthen (nursing specialist within the SKB), it was announced that the COPD Smart project may call itself the winner of the Health Valley Bridge Prize 2022 with over 46% of the votes.
The project
In September 2020, Streekziekenhuis Koningin Beatrix began the implementation of the EmmaCOPD eHealth application to support COPD patients remotely and recognize possible lung attacks early. The EmmaCOPD eHealth application consists of two components:
- The Digital Lung Attack Action Plan (DigiLAP), which via the Emma app helps patients quickly recognize a lung attack and take immediate and adequate action.
- The Emma Activity Coach. This special software for the smartwatch allows physiotherapists monitor and support patients in maintaining/strengthening their physical fitness.
In previous research by The Leiden University Medical Center EmmaCOPD was shown to significantly reduce hospitalization days of COPD patients with 79%.
New to the COPD Smart project is the introduction of optional care pathways, in which the roles of healthcare professionals around the patient are different.
- Additional care pathways
During the COPD Smart project, new care pathways were developed and configured to provide optimal support for patients. For each patient, in consultation between the hospital and home care, the choice was made between the care pathway with or without additional support. The care pathway without support is similar to the care pathway validated by LUMC. New to the care pathway with support is that Medical Service Center NAAST provides a safety net for less self-reliant patients by actively monitoring whether these patients actually take the prescribed steps from the Digital Lung Attack Action Plan in the event of a lung attack. - Integrated care:
The choice of EmmaCOPD allows the various caregivers to work together in one system.- Patients are signed up by the hospital’s specialist nurses.
- Patients are connected to the Emma platform by home care pulmonary nurses (Marga Klompé & Sensire). These pulmonary nurses are also the first point of contact for the patient within the Lung Attack Action Plan.
- The nurse call centerists at Medical Service Center NAAST provide a safety net for patients with additional support by 24/7 monitoring for any symptoms.
- Several physiotherapists are connected for each patient to coach the patient on activity using the smartwatch.
- In addition, each patient can connect a buddy/informal caregiver to their own community in Emma. This buddy/informal caregiver could be the first to receive notifications of worsening symptoms.
High patient satisfaction
Patients from the COPD Smart project were found to be very satisfied with the use of EmmaCOPD. Where COPD is known as a progressive disease, 92% indicated that their health status had improved or remained at least neutral. Click here for more info on patient satisfaction in the COPD Smart project.
Proud of EmmaCOPD
We at Medicine Men are very proud to have won this award. In late 2021, the EmmaCOPD project in the Gooi- and Vecht region also received a major nomination as one of the best five healthcare projects according to trade magazine Computable. That we have now won this coveted Health Valley Bridge award is a confirmation for us that the product is well put together and that we can really help patients with EmmaCOPD.
On behalf of all Medicine Men employees, we would like to thank everyone for voting!
Photo: from left to right: Nicole Pijnenburg (Menzis), Lisette Drenthen (SKB), Nicol Klein Tuente (SKB), Jan Cox (Medicine Men) and Martijn Sijbers (De Groeiversneller, Oost NL)
