Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Basis Belief is collaborating with software program supplier Simul8 and Cranfield College on a four-month pilot which is utilizing simulation with the purpose of bettering affected person stream administration.
The challenge, happening within the trauma and orthopaedics clinic at Luton and Dunstable College Hospital, began in April 2024 and can run till August 2024, funded by the Innovate UK Accelerated Information Switch scheme.
Researchers at Cranfield College and Simul8 are utilizing historic knowledge from Bedfordshire Hospitals, collected through the queue administration device DASHclinic app, to simulate a typical day on the hospital.
The DASHclinic app, which has been used at Bedfordshire Hospitals since 2022, collects metrics on timings similar to when sufferers attend appointments, how lengthy medical procedures take, and the way lengthy sufferers watch for an x-ray.
This info is getting used for the predictive modelling of future clinics, in order that the researchers can develop and take a look at a brand new optimisation device to determine any bottlenecks within the system and improve course of effectivity.
Mr Jim Grey, medical director, trauma and orthopaedics at Bedfordshire Hospitals and creator of DASHclinic, instructed Digital Well being Information: “The information can present us common occasions, common ready occasions, and what days are problematic.
“We’ve taken that knowledge and successfully given it to Simul8 and Cranfield, so that it’ll basically present us the place the bottlenecks are within the clinic.
He added “I believe that the way forward for clinics is with knowledge metrics and AI with the ability to turn into the sensible future scheduler to allow us to place extra sufferers by means of clinic utilizing much less workers and serving to to cut back prolonged ready lists”.
If the pilot is profitable, Grey mentioned there might be the potential to implement a simulation-powered digital twin, which might permit Bedfordshire Hospitals to optimise its administration of sufferers in real-time, additional unlocking efficiencies.
“I hope the information extract would possibly give you a concept, get nearer to a speculation that we will be on a journey to create a sensible scheduler,” Grey mentioned.
Tom Stephenson, director of strategic partnerships, healthcare at Simul8 wrote for Digital Well being in March 2024 about how simulation might assist resolve the NHS elective care backlog.