Bringing epilepsy care closer to patients
Posted by
25-Mar-2016
An innovative initiative designed to bring epilepsy care closer to patients has won a prize at the Eye For Pharma awards in Barcelona. The project, which is supported by UCB and others, picked up the Most Valuable Pharma Collaboration Award.
This unique collaboration was one of two UCB-backed projects to be recognised at an event which highlights “valuable and innovative patient-centric initiatives”.
The collaboration in question was a ground-breaking partnership between Epilepsy Scotland, NHS Dumfries & Galloway and three pharmaceutical companies including UCB.
The initiative supported the provision of epilepsy education and training to doctors, nurses and learning disabilities staff. It also raised awareness of epilepsy and provided information to a wide range of staff on rescue medication and non-clinical management during seizures.
Through this project, Epilepsy Scotland was empowered to provide specialist epilepsy nursing services for three days per week for three years. The initiative helps to provide patient-centred care and to improve services.
More than 1,200 people in the area benefited from the project which demonstrates a new model for epilepsy care. It has illustrated how patients can avail of specialist care without having to travel long distances for routine hospital visits.
Prior to the launch of the project, an audit of services in Dumfries and Galloway highlighted improvement areas in service provision. The study found that only 39% of patients had ever been given information about common seizure triggers. Around half of those surveyed had never had a specialist epilepsy review and 44% had no care plan.
The project could inspire the rollout of similar services to other parts of Scotland and has been presented to Members of the Scottish Parliament.
The other UCB project to win an award was also designed to improve the lives of epilepsy patients. ‘Hack Epilepsy’ brought together developers, designers and digital experts, along with healthcare providers and patients to imagine new ways of applying digital technologies that can make a real difference for the epilepsy community.
We were delighted to see these initiatives recognised for their commitment to innovative patient-centred partnerships.
This unique collaboration was one of two UCB-backed projects to be recognised at an event which highlights “valuable and innovative patient-centric initiatives”.
The collaboration in question was a ground-breaking partnership between Epilepsy Scotland, NHS Dumfries & Galloway and three pharmaceutical companies including UCB.
The initiative supported the provision of epilepsy education and training to doctors, nurses and learning disabilities staff. It also raised awareness of epilepsy and provided information to a wide range of staff on rescue medication and non-clinical management during seizures.
Through this project, Epilepsy Scotland was empowered to provide specialist epilepsy nursing services for three days per week for three years. The initiative helps to provide patient-centred care and to improve services.
More than 1,200 people in the area benefited from the project which demonstrates a new model for epilepsy care. It has illustrated how patients can avail of specialist care without having to travel long distances for routine hospital visits.
Prior to the launch of the project, an audit of services in Dumfries and Galloway highlighted improvement areas in service provision. The study found that only 39% of patients had ever been given information about common seizure triggers. Around half of those surveyed had never had a specialist epilepsy review and 44% had no care plan.
The project could inspire the rollout of similar services to other parts of Scotland and has been presented to Members of the Scottish Parliament.
The other UCB project to win an award was also designed to improve the lives of epilepsy patients. ‘Hack Epilepsy’ brought together developers, designers and digital experts, along with healthcare providers and patients to imagine new ways of applying digital technologies that can make a real difference for the epilepsy community.
We were delighted to see these initiatives recognised for their commitment to innovative patient-centred partnerships.
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