How accuRx’s simple Chain SMS software helps to improve health literacy in England’s most vulnerable populations
I’ve been at accuRx for about a year, joining shortly after finishing up an MSc in Global Public Health and Policy here in London. I’m still as excited (if not more) than I was when I first interviewed. I remember Vivek (our Clinical Lead) showing me the Chain SMS toolbar during my second interview. Some other features he demo’d were the templates he created and the ability to add NHS.UK leaflets. We talked a lot about the potential impact the software could make on public health outcomes, and he told me that practices had already seen the impact: cervical screening uptake had skyrocketed since practices had started using Chain to send out cervical screening invitations (these invites had previously been sent out by letter and largely ignored by patients).
Having recently completed my dissertation (which focused on sexual and reproductive health literacy in BAME populations), the concept of health literacy was fresh in my mind. I immediately thought of how Chain SMS could be a powerful tool in helping to improve health literacy across the country, especially in minority populations.
As a quick background, health literacy has most recently been defined as a “range of personal, social and cognitive skills necessary to access, understand and use information to support and maintain health within healthcare, community and broader social realms.” Public Health England has identified 5 population groups that are most at risk of limited health literacy:
- more disadvantaged socioeconomic groups
- migrants and people from ethnic minorities
- older people
- people with long-term health conditions
- people with disabilities
Within a week after starting at accuRx, I’d heard from our users how Chain SMS had already helped improve health literacy in all 5 of these population groups.
A big part of my job is connecting with users and going through the feedback they give us (through various channels) on a daily basis. At other companies this could be potentially boring or draining — but not at accuRx. Users are always telling us how Chain SMS has helped helped with time savings, cost savings and improving staff morale. But my favourite type of feedback is hearing how Chain SMS has helped patients. More specifically, I love hearing how it’s helped to improve patients that fall into this ‘most at risk of limited health literacy’ category.
A few of my favourites…
“I use it to send information to patients with Learning Disabilities and patients for whom English is not their first language. I can even send the information direct to patients’ carers.”
“Excellent for those who speak English as a 2nd language too. I couldn’t explain the test results to my patient on the phone today so she wanted a text as she could easily translate it! Fantastic and time saving and cut out the need for an interpreter.”
“I had an 86 year old feed back what an excellent service we gave from the surgery when keeping in touch with her by [SMS] messages.”
“Pathways for diabetes is fantastic! It makes it so clear for these patients. They sometimes get overwhelmed in long appointments because they get so much information at once. Now I can set up texts to them to say when I’ve changed their medication, that they need to get their blood taken in two weeks, then they need to come see me.”
“Patient’s mum is deaf so great way to communicate.”
I’m beyond proud to work alongside a team that’s so committed to improving the lives of both patients and healthcare staff, and I feel very fortunate to be in a position where seeing accuRx’s impact is central to my role.
Chain SMS is just the beginning of what we’re going to offer — and I’m so excited for what’s to come (my vote’s for a translation feature)!
