General practice is under significant pressure due to a growing workload caused by a number of factors including high and rising patient demand, pandemic response, and a shortage of GPs and other clinical staff. In addition to their list of daily patient consultations, GPs have many time-consuming tasks that must be completed each day.
Two areas of work in particular have been identified which could be automated in some form to save GP time: processing pathology results and managing clinical correspondence.
We are making an exploratory call to industry and would like to hear from innovators who are developing or have developed solutions in these two areas. This could be an opportunity to co design a solution directly based on need, which is then attractive to the wider general practice market. Although there is currently no funding behind this call to industry we could explore possible funding opportunities where appropriate.
If anyone is already looking into this area or has successfully trialed robotic process automation (RPA) please do get in touch.
The original deadline for this piece of work has now passed (10th January 2022) but as there is considerable interest in this area from both GP practices and providers, we are keeping this call to industry open until 31st March 2022 to explore further opportunities.
For more information please read our GP workload needs articulation document or contact Jenny Partridge, Industry and Technology Navigator, KSS AHSN.
Additional information
You may find the following research useful in relation to this innovation call:
The future of healthcare: computerisation, automation and general practice services
Dr. Matthew Willis, Dr. Paul Duckworth, Logan Graham, Prof. Michael Osborne, Prof. Eric T. Meyer, D
Oxford University & Oxford Internet Institute, 2020.