A partnership, co-designing new healthcare technology solutions with people who have epilepsy, has been announced between FutureNeuro, the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centre for Chronic and Rare Neurological Diseases, hosted at RCSI, and Irish company S3 Connected Health.
The partnership will assess the barriers and enablers associated with eHealth adoption by collaborating with people who have epilepsy, their families and care-partners from a broad range of backgrounds and circumstances, as well as healthcare providers, managers and policy-makers. Understanding these barriers is key to the adoption of new technology-enabled solutions.
For patients with chronic conditions such as epilepsy, benefits include faster patient feedback about the effectiveness of new treatments, options to access additional supports in relation to diet or exercise, and proactive support for self-management and medication adherence – the latter which poses a significant risk for people with chronic illness.
It could also allow people to complete routine appointments remotely, avoiding long travel distances, additional costs and resulting in less frequent but better consultant visits.
“The rise of the informed patient and the proper enablement of healthcare and wellness through technology are likely to be the greatest revolution in healthcare in the 21st century,” said Dr. Colin Doherty, Principal Investigator with FutureNeuro, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Neurology at Trinity College Dublin and national lead for women’s health in epilepsy. “Physicians must move from being experts that care for patients to enablers that support patients to make decisions. Patients want a partnership with their doctor to use their expertise to help them react to and understand the technologies and to design ways they can work together to build solutions for monitoring both illness and wellbeing.”
