DURBAN - South African health technology company Healthcent (Signapps) has won a contract with Britain’s National Health Services (NHS).
Signapps will be providing its software as a service communication platform for the management of clinical communication to NHS Trusts.
NHS Trusts will be able to procure these services through a framework agreement which has a list value of £3 million (R58.89 million) and will run for a period of two years with a potential extension for 12 months.
“The contract with the NHS is a major coup for us, as a South African company, proving that our product engineering teams can create product to compete with the very best internationally” said Andrew Davies, CEO of Signapps.
Signapps, which was launched in 2018, is a messaging platform that has a proven local track record, having been established in numerous areas, including the Chris Hani Baragwanath Paediatric Burns Unit, stroke units within the Life Hospital group as well as the sub-acute care for the Intercare Group and many others.
The contract will provide work opportunities for those with software engineering and development skills because most of the development involved in fulfilling the NHS contract will be done locally.
Using Signapps, clinical updates on patients can be communicated and shared confidentially, enabling appropriate responses by practitioners in real-time as well as facilitating more generalised communication relating to logistical and administrative matters between teams.
The advantage of Signapps™, particularly in the treatment of patients with Covid-19, is that only essential workers need to be physically present with the patient, allowing other members of the care team to collaborate in real time remotely. This reduces the risk of unnecessary exposure to healthcare workers providing input to cases, whilst allowing them to efficiently manage a far greater number than otherwise possible without the technology.
Davies said “There was an excellent fit between the requirements of the NHS tender and the Signapps™ messaging platform including GDPR compliant platform features and points of integration to NHS active directory and Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. Said features and integrations enable staff to share clinical information quickly and securely with the minimum of friction”.
He added, “The award shows that our platform, already proven to be effective in South Africa, can stand up to international scrutiny and be selected for use in one of the world’s biggest national health systems. I am proud of everyone, both inside and outside our company, who has played a role in developing Signapps™ to this point.
According to Signapps, the contract with Britain's NHS will give Signapps footprint in its first European market and the opportunity to work within one of the largest healthcare systems in the world.
The project covers a cross section of organisations within the NHS both primary and secondary care and will include the coordination of care of Covid-19 patients. From a product perspective it will broaden the capabilities of the platform through the development of new workflows, intelligence (AI) and integrations to care pathways implemented in the NHS.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE