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Highlights
- The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, located in Liverpool, England, is a leading hospital in the United Kingdom dedicated to neurology, neurosurgery, spinal, and pain management services, covering a population of 3.5 million of Liverpool.
- In its pursuit to continually increase the quality of patient care, the Trust wanted to address operational challenges stemming from the time-consuming process of gathering patient information and the inefficiencies of manual processes.
- The Walton Centre, in partnership with TCS, launched an AI chatbot to streamline patient consultations, quickly identify urgent cases, offer initial advice and guidance, and reduce the time involved in obtaining patient history.
On this page
Overview
The Global Burden of Disease study (2019) highlights a rather significant global health concern: headache disorders.
According to the study, these disorders are among the most prevalent and disabling conditions worldwide. Migraines alone are second among the causes of disability, and unfortunately, first among women under 50. Headache disorders form a significant portion of outpatient and inpatient neurology practice, with 33% of all referrals to neurology outpatients for headache-related issues.
The alarming prevalence of headache disorders underscores the need for specialized headache treatment and care. And that’s where The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust comes in.
Located in Liverpool, England, The Walton Centre is a leader in the treatment and care of neurology and neurosurgery. It is uniquely positioned as the only specialist hospital in the United Kingdom dedicated to providing comprehensive neurology, neurosurgery, spinal, and pain management services. The Care Quality Commission, an independent body that inspects and rates health and social care services in England, has rated The Walton Centre as outstanding for its services.
Challenge
The Walton Centre covers a population of 3.5 million and receives 350-450 neurology referrals per week.
Nearly a third of these cite chronic headaches as the main problem. Several bottlenecks, however, cause delays in delivering specialized treatment, significantly affecting outcomes.
Long waiting time: According to The Walton Centre, patients with headaches make up the largest number of referrals to areas such as neurology and cancer, with a three-month average waiting time to be seen by a consultant.
Delay in treatment: Specialist clinicians typically spend 40% or more of their time gathering and validating basic information, such as a patient’s condition and medication details, leading to inefficient use of time, which in turn delays intervention and treatment.
Paperwork and manual process: Manually managing available patient history where and when required, maintaining security, and ensuring compliance with general data protection regulation is cumbersome to say the least.
Solution
The Walton Centre wanted to develop an innovative artificial intelligence chatbot to streamline patient triage.
The dual aim was to reduce waiting times and offer a better patient experience. To accomplish this, The Walton Centre partnered with TCS, which utilized its vast expertise in healthcare and the UK public sector, alongside its partnership with AWS.
The collaboration resulted in a chatbot service, employing conversational AI to address headache-related concerns. The service would be hosted on The Walton Centre website, allowing patients to interact and get answers to the structured questions prepared and reviewed by clinicians at the hospital, following the clinical pathway. The service also has provision to query and capture any additional details from patients in natural conversation based on the workflow.
Once the patient completes the entire flow, the output captured by this service (a patient summary) is sent to the electronic medical record system of The Walton Centre in a secured patient summary report format.
The patient’s summary report gives the consultant an early view of their condition, symptoms, and medical history, supported with detailed information, ahead of their first face-to-face appointment.
Benefits
The AI chatbot presents several benefits for both patients and the National Health Service workforce.
For patients who use the online service, the benefits include:
More effective first appointment and improved patient experience: The overall appointment time for the first appointment (typically focused on history taking) can be reduced by 40%. This enables a more effective first appointment for the patient, with the time being utilized to gain a better understanding of their condition for an informed diagnosis and treatment.
Convenience and cost savings: Patients can engage with the online service conveniently as the service is available round the clock. This availability also potentially reduces the number of times patients need to travel to the hospital.
Early identification of potential red flags and reassurance when there are none: Assuming more than 99% of headaches are primary headaches and do not stem from a serious underlying disease, earlier clinician review might provide reassurance and relief from anxiety to patients while they await their first appointment. However, for the 1% who may have a severe condition, the online service will enable a review of their detailed history sooner than the average referral waiting time. This could be life-changing in terms of clinical outcomes.
For the National Health Service workforce, the benefits include:
Increased efficiency: Capturing 95% of the required information through the AI chatbot service enhances clinicians' overall efficiency, enabling them to assist more patients.
Time saving on the first appointment: Having most patient information in advance streamlines the initial consultation, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of diagnosis and treatment options. This efficiency enables clinicians to treat more patients through earlier triage and appropriate re-routing.
Digital patient record: Secure patient history is readily accessible in a structured and consistent manner, ensuring efficient patient care.
Reduction in paper-based processes: Direct patient summary transfer to the hospital’s electronic medical record system decreases paperwork, maintains security, and ensures GDPR compliance.
Improved data quality: Digital collection of patient history minimizes manual transfer errors and promotes uniform data, enhancing trend and pattern analysis.
Better staff training and richer research capability: There is potential to use structured data within care pathways for staff training and deeper insights for research.
DR. ANITA KRISHNAN
Divisional Clinical Director for Neurology and a Consultant Neurologist, The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust
Technology plays a useful part in medicine and helps doctors to understand illness faster and more accurately. It’s exciting to work and continue our journey with TCS on creating a new artificial intelligence-based solution which will help our patients.
DR. RHYS DAVIES
Consultant Neurologist, The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, Clinical Director of Medical Education and Research
The Walton Centre has worked closely with TCS on technology that allows clinicians to make the most of their time with patients, specifically patients presenting with headache symptoms. Our AI-supported chatbot captures over 95% of the key information needed to provide specialist advice to these patients, so that appointments are managed effectively and efficiently.
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