(December 13th 2022) Today Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) and its interdisciplinary Chronic Pancreatitis team showcased an innovative mobile phone app, termed the SmartCP app. This app empowers patients to take control of their condition and will improve communication with the Hospital team. The app will streamline and coordinate patient management, and will enable TUH to care for patients in their homes and communities, aligning with TUH’s vision of being ‘a hospital without walls’.
The SmartCP project is supported by an innovation grant from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The project was coordinated by Professor Kevin Conlon, Consultant Surgeon at TUH and Professor of Surgery at Trinity College Dublin, Dr. Sinead Duggan, a Senior Research Fellow in Trinity College Dublin and former TUH Nutrition & Dietetics Department member and Ms. Marie Egan, Clinical Nurse Specialist in TUH.
It was developed in collaboration with TUH’s Innovate Health Team, ICT & Finance Departments, as well as, the Dept of Computing in Technological University Dublin. Patients with chronic pancreatitis have also been central to its design and development. In tandem with this project the group at TUH set up the first Patient Support and Advocacy Group for chronic pancreatitis in this country, Chronic Pancreatitis Ireland.
Chronic pancreatitis is a condition where the pancreas is inflamed and becomes progressively more damaged over time. It is incurable and management centres around dealing with symptoms and complications as they arise. Patients with chronic pancreatitis suffer from debilitating gastro-intestinal symptoms (steatorrhoea, bloating, nausea, vomiting), they often lose weight and become malnourished. As the disease progresses, they develop brittle diabetes, osteoporosis and nutrient deficiency. Patients typically suffer from severe, untreatable, abdominal pain. Patients also have a higher-than normal lifetime risk of developing pancreatic cancer. They are complex patients requiring specialist, multi-disciplinary care.
TUH runs the biggest centre for chronic pancreatitis care on the Island of Ireland and currently has more than 300 patients on their clinical database. Many of them live outside of Dublin. There are several types of out-patient clinics for chronic pancreatitis per week, including a Clinical Nurse Specialist led clinic and a specialist type 3c diabetes clinic. TUH research has shown that Ireland has among the highest numbers in Europe of those suffering from chronic pancreatitis.
Over the last 12 years the team have also built a robust research programme, focusing mainly on the nutritional and clinical management of patients with chronic pancreatitis. They have undertaken studies in diabetes, osteoporosis, small intestine bacterial overgrowth, genetics and nutrient deficiency. This research has been supported by the Health Research Board and the Meath Foundation.
Professor Kevin Conlon, project PI, says “Our hospital is very well placed to take a lead on the development of this technology, we run the only dedicated chronic pancreatitis service nationally, providing care for over 300 patients. This new digital tool will improve patient access to specialist care, no matter where they live in the country. I and the team are grateful to DPER who awarded us with the Innovation funding, to the Meath Foundation who have funded much of our research over the years, and to the Innovate Health Team in TUH for their ongoing support and encouragement. Our Clinical Nurse Specialist, Ms. Marie Egan, is central to both the running of our service and to the practical roll out of this innovative technology.”
Dr. Sinead Duggan,project co-PI, says: “Chronic pancreatitis is a complex disease requiring specialist, multi-disciplinary management. Our overall aim is to keep our patients healthier for longer, and to keep them out of hospital. SmartCP will empower patients with chronic pancreatitis, improving their quality of life and wellbeing. Whilst we have built a robust research programme over the last decade, traditionally chronic pancreatitis has been very much a neglected condition. We envisage that SmartCP will represent the lynchpin that enhances the quality of our service and facilitates a shift from illness to wellness, and ultimately towards an integrated care programme for chronic pancreatitis.”
Dr. Natalie Cole, Head of Innovation “The work to date in developing Smart CP is a great example of industry, academia and healthcare working together to develop an enabling technology to support our clinical team and empower our patients. We are very grateful to the Public Service Innovation Fund for their support for innovative ideas such as this.
Chronic Pancreatitis patient and member of patient advocacy group Chronic Pancreatitis Ireland, Ms Edel Rasmussen, said: “As a patient with chronic pancreatitis, I’m really looking forward to having this app. I think it will help us immensely as this disease is so complicated and every patient is unique in their diagnosis and in the symptoms that they experience. By having access to SmartCP, I hope that we can help each other, while also having the expertise of Professor Conlon and his colleagues to guide us through this difficult pancreatitis journey.”
A demonstration of the SmartCP app developed by MyPatientSpace can be accessed via this link.
Core functions of SmartCP
Clinical symptoms: Patients are able to react more quickly to deteriorating health and provide better and more accurate care to physicians using the app’s graphical information.
Information: The app contains text and video educational content including: the pancreas, chronic pancreatitis, diabetes, nutrition/exercise/lifestyle, and pancreatic cancer, as well as informational videos from the multidisciplinary team.
A better patient experience: Patients are empowered to take control of their chronic disease and will have the confidence that they are being heard.
Better care for patients based outside of Dublin: As the only chronic pancreatitis multidisciplinary service in Ireland, many of the Hospital patients reside outside of the city. SmartCP enables clinicians to provide a better service for those patients, ensure that care is not dependent on geography, whilst reducing expense and time-burden for patients.
Resource savings: With improved disease management there will be less attendances to ED, fewer crisis phone-calls, a reduction in emergency admissions and hospitalisation, and more rationale allocation of clinic time to those who need it (preventing unnecessary follow-up in some cases) – therefore reducing the burden on the Hospital and enabling valuable clinical resources to be used to see more patients.
Next steps
The team’s next step is to formally launch the app early next year and complete a study to determine the feasibility of SmartCP in the management of patients with chronic pancreatitis, as well as exploring the effect of the intervention on crisis events, patient symptoms, hospitalisation and cost of care.
