Each week we spotlight one of our DigitalHealth.London businesses, founders or NHS fellows. Today we are excited to introduce Hero Health, our current company DigitalHealth.London Accelerator.
What is the problem you are trying to solve and why is it important?
Every year, a general practice (GP) patient survey asks patients “If you didn’t get an appointment, why?”
In 2023, 25% of patients cited the inability to book in advance at their practice, while 32% reported difficulty securing appointments on the day or time of their choice. With these figures constantly increasing, alongside the overwhelming reliance on telephone bookings rather than online appointments (82% vs. 15%), patients are struggling to access the appointments that are suitable for them, as Phone lines prioritize a first-come, first-served approach due to long wait times.
Providing a service that provides streamlined access to care by allowing patients to schedule appointments based on their needs and schedules could ease pressure on phone lines and encourage greater use of online self-service options . This would improve flexibility for patients and reduce demand for traditional booking methods.
What is the solution you have developed and how can it help solve the problem?
Hero Health provides a suite of three core offerings that are used together to create a mechanism to create the visibility and means to distribute to patients a versatile self-service solution for primary care networks (PCNs) and practices across the England. All of our functionality is deeply integrated with EMIS and SystmOne, the leading systems of record used in primary care in the UK.
- Our care navigation provides a route for patients to access and request the care they need online rather than over the phone.
- Practices can communicate directly with patients using our messaging features. It also works effectively at scale, providing the means to communicate with many patients simultaneously, inviting them for routine appointments or offering free health checkups. This saves administrative staff a lot of time.
- Our booking functionality, with built-in demographic restrictions and cross-organizational capabilities, surfaces appointment availability for patients; allowing them to book at a time and date that suits them.
What is the history of your company?
Hero Health was developed in response to existing technology limitations identified by primary care providers and patients.
Primary care providers found that existing clinical records systems like EMIS Web and TPP’s SystmOne were proficient at clinical records management and reporting, but lacked patient engagement features such as provider-patient communication and online booking. These were often treated as secondary elements.
On the patient side, accessing general medicine seemed disconnected and difficult to manage. Communication remained sporadic and often analog. Why was it easy to book a taxi, but booking a medical appointment seemed complex?
What successes have you had so far through successful pilots/trials/contracts?
Together First is a federation serving over 200,000 patients in the North East London area.
In August 2023, Together First needed to provide expanded access services and allow patients to book appointments at multiple practices in their network. Before acquiring Hero Health, their administrative teams sent messages to patients, inviting them to call the practice and schedule an appointment through the Hubsite. Administrative staff had to manually register these patients into various GP systems after the patient called the practice. Using our batch messaging tool, they were able to contact over 26,000 patients within an hour of setting up to reserve available slots. In doing so, they received 581 confirmed bookings at various GP venues and systems across their network.
Since this pilot, the demand on the administrative team has been reduced, long phone queues and the stress of managing multiple inbound channels has been reduced. The team now uses a simple, efficient workflow that allows them to invite patients to book appointments and allows patients to proactively choose and manage the times they want to book.
What are your future goals? What does success look like?
We aim to expand our presence across the UK and operate on a larger scale at Integrated Care Board (ICB) levels. This means providing technology to GP practices, PCN sites and community providers like pharmacies. Recognizing that the ‘front door’ to healthcare is no longer simply a face-to-face appointment with a GP, we understand that for different patients access may take the form of a visit to community pharmacy, interaction with a social prescriber or an enhanced mid-week appointment. access slot.
All of our features – from scheduling, communication and care navigation – are designed to empower patients to manage their health more independently and facilitate better engagement with practice team members when needed. To achieve this, we are working towards deeper integration within NHS structures, including procurement frameworks such as the new Digital Pathways framework and technology integration with platforms such as the NHS app.
How has your time at the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator helped you achieve these goals?
Through the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator, we have had the opportunity to work alongside like-minded innovators to extend our tools and capabilities to other solutions. Being part of the program has opened up possibilities for using our technology in different use cases, such as social prescribing or reminder management. We have also been introduced to relevant people in key roles within the NHS (for example within the South West London ICB) and received mentoring from expert innovators who are invested in our success.
Do you have any advice for future digital health companies?
Start small. Choose a small problem that you are aware of and work closely with providers to find a solution. Encourage providers to engage and invest early, ideally by providing funds before the technology is developed. For integrations, double your estimated integration timelines to ensure a realistic integration window.
Any requests for the public?
Learn more about Hero Health here.
Hero Health is currently part of Cohort 7 of the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme.
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.
