With support from CW Innovation and through the CW Innovation Fellowship, Dr Richard Lee, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at the Trust, led the integration of Ufonia’s Dora AI – an automated phone service supporting patients before and after surgery – across the cataract pathway. The project was funded by a CW+ grant and is improving efficiency, enhancing patient experience and reducing the need for in-person appointments.
Watch the video or read the transcript below.Â
Dr Richard Lee, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, explains how he implemented automated AI-driven phone calls to patients across the cataract surgery pathway at the Trust
Richard’s story: transcript
I had the great opportunity of being part of the CW Innovation Fellowship. My project was the Dora AI platform.
Implementing the Dora AI platform
Within ophthalmology, cataract surgery is the most common operation within the NHS. There are almost half a million procedures performed every year. With limited resources and limited capacity for appointments, we really need to look at more innovative ways of looking after patients. That was the main reason for starting the project with Dora, which is an AI-assisted telephone service, to try and support the cataract pathway and ensure that we provide our patients with the best care we can.
With the Dora AI platform, which is being used currently within the Trust, patients will get a telephone call from Dora before their initial consultation and their surgery as well as after their surgery, and several months later. It’s to try and gain a little bit of information before their appointment to make sure they are attending for their surgery, to make sure that their eye has settled down well following surgery, and to check that they’re happy with the results several months after.
Impact and collaboration
In the first six months, we made over 1,000 calls to patients using Dora, which would have been 1,000 appointments, for example, but it was done using AI at a time convenient for patients.
Dora was able to also get patient feedback, and found that over eight out of ten patients were very happy with the call that they received.
The Dora AI platform was funded through a CW+ grant. If it wasn’t for the support of CW Innovation, who have such a vast experience in these processes, it really wouldn’t have been possible to get the results we had with the Dora pilot.
The value of the CW Innovation Fellowship
The CW Innovation Fellowship has really helped to shape how I deliver innovation within the Trust. I got to meet other colleagues from various backgrounds, within different specialties, also working on amazing, innovative projects within the Trust.
We had a number of didactic lectures and workshops where we learnt how to deliver innovation within the Trust, and how really to push forward innovation and make it into something that’s more sustainable.
CW+ and CW Innovation really support clinicians to give them a structured approach to delivering innovation within the Trust. It’s great to work for a Trust which really pushes and drives forward different forms of innovation.
Thanks to CW Innovation, AI is helping Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust deliver better, faster, smarter care for patients.
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