Each week we spotlight one of our DigitalHealth.London businesses, founders or NHS fellows. Today we are excited to introduce Blinx, our current accelerator company DigitalHealth.London.
What is the problem you are trying to solve and why is it important?
Primary care in England faces significant challenges, including workforce pressures, growing demand and complex patient needs, compounded by difficulties accessing appropriate services. Existing digital solutions lack integration, leading to data fragmentation and widening health disparities. Much primary care remains reactive rather than preventative, highlighting the need for increased patient engagement and accountability.
To meet these challenges, it is crucial to improve the integration of digital solutions. This involves streamlining data exchange and continuity of care to reduce pressure on healthcare resources and improve population health outcomes. Empowering patients to play an active role in their healthcare, promoting shared decision-making, and fostering collaboration between patients and providers are essential steps in this transformation.
What is the solution you have developed and how can it help solve the problem?
Blinx has developed Patient and Care Optimiser (PACO), a comprehensive Software as a Service (SAAS) product designed to address the multifaceted challenges faced at all levels of primary care in England. PACO is scalable, interoperable and can seamlessly integrate into GP practices, primary care networks (PCNs) and federations to deliver effective and efficient healthcare services.
PACO offers a suite of modules, including an online consultations module that facilitates remote patient consultations and reduces the need for in-person visits, easing pressure on clinical resources. PACO also has a Care Navigation and Connect module, which allows healthcare professionals to guide patients through appropriate care pathways and distribute demand across all available resources, thereby optimizing healthcare delivery to large scale.
Other modules include appointment scheduling, patient communications, digital healthcare data capture, and population health analytics. With these features, PACO can streamline administrative tasks, improve communication between patients and healthcare providers, and enable data-driven decision-making to improve patient outcomes.
What is the history of your company?
Blinx started in 2014 focusing on developing business applications that improve visibility and efficiency across various industries. However, in 2018, recognizing the pressing need for innovative solutions in healthcare, our management made the strategic decision to move into healthcare technology. Our approach involved working closely with key primary care partners to co-develop a solution that truly meets the needs of healthcare professionals and patients.
In October 2022, we are proud to launch our flagship product, PACO GP, which represents the culmination of years of research, development and collaboration. Since then, PACO GP has continued to evolve, with the addition of new features to enhance its capabilities and address emerging challenges in primary care. The response from the healthcare community has been overwhelmingly positive, leading to rapid growth in our customer base across England.
We remain committed to our mission to revolutionize healthcare delivery through technology and continue to innovate and expand our product offerings to meet the evolving needs of the healthcare industry.
What successes have you had so far through successful pilots/trials/contracts?
Reduction of manual efforts
PACO’s health forms automation has significantly reduced manual efforts for healthcare professionals, streamlining administrative tasks and allowing them to focus more on patient care. A single health forms automation campaign alone saved over 100 days of administration time in a single practice.
Improved digital front door
By implementing PACO’s digital front door solutions, we have seen a noticeable decrease in phone calls to practices, as patients now have convenient self-booking links for call campaigns: routine callback and simple administrative requests. This led to a reduction of more than 1,500 phone calls over a month in one PCN alone.
Improved patient engagement
The Communication Center’s patient-preferred language translation functionality has led to increased patient engagement. Previously unresponsive patients are now actively participating in health initiatives, leading to better health outcomes.
Reduction in DNA appointments
Practices using PACO have experienced a remarkable reduction in the number of walk-in appointments (DNA) of more than 15%. This decrease is attributed to patients using the self-booking feature, which allows them to reschedule or cancel appointments directly from the links provided, eliminating the need to contact the practice.
Increased use of appointments
With the self-booking feature and improved patient engagement, appointment utilization rates saw a significant increase of over 5% on average across all practices. This indicates more efficient use of available appointments and resources.
What are your future goals? What does success look like?
We are moving towards a patient-centric approach within PACO, aiming to provide a comprehensive, integrated solution that enables primary care to operate seamlessly at scale. We aim to expand our presence across England, working collaboratively with PCNs and wider NHS organizations to reach more communities and healthcare providers.
For us, success also means fostering greater patient engagement and accountability. We want to enable patients to play an active role in managing their health by providing them with tools and resources to make informed decisions.
How has your time at the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator helped you achieve these goals?
Our move to the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator has been transformative, enabling us to strengthen our network, improve our understanding of compliance and governance requirements, NHS regulatory frameworks and develop solutions that are scalable, compliant and tailored to the needs of the NHS .
We were also able to grow our network within the healthcare ecosystem by connecting with industry experts, healthcare professionals, and other innovators. The advice from these relationships – along with the invaluable knowledge, experience and guidance of the programme’s NHS Navigators – has helped us implement the appropriate policies and designs into our product development process from the outset.
Our participation in the program has better positioned us to achieve our goals of improving patient outcomes and driving innovation in healthcare delivery.
Do you have any advice for future digital health companies?
Make sure you engage NHS partners from the start and build strong partnerships with your early adopters who can help shape and understand the needs of your products. Prioritize security and privacy from the start and don’t underestimate interoperability complexity and timelines in your development estimates.
Build a culture of iteration within your team and customers to ensure your solution truly meets your customers’ needs.
Any requests for the public?
Take the time to discover our solutions and see how they can benefit you and your organization. Whether you are a healthcare provider, patient or industry partner, you may have opportunities to leverage our products and services to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes.
As we continue to grow and learn, we invite healthcare professionals to engage with us, provide feedback on our solutions, and share their experiences. We are also always looking for collaboration opportunities with healthcare organizations, industry partners and innovators. If you see potential synergies or collaboration opportunities, please contact us.
Blinx is currently part of Cohort 7 of the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator program.
THE DigitalHealth.London Accelerator The program is funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). It is delivered by the Health Innovation Network (HIN) South London in partnership with the Office of Life Sciences, CW+, Medicity, NHS England, the Mayor of London and the Leveling Up Fund.
For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-
Shared Prosperity Fund prospectus.
