NHS Trusts to begin rolling out Diabetes e-Passport initiative

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A pilot diabetes e-passport will be launched in a number of NHS trusts from March.

The diabetes e-passport should first be tested in hospitals across the Wessex region. However, the pilot was expanded to more NHS trusts before this had a chance to begin.

The e-passport process begins in diabetes clinics, where people with diabetes have their healthcare professionals create their online profiles. It enters information about the person’s insulin dose, medication, and other important information about the patient.

After the first visit, the person with diabetes can access their profile in their own time and submit any additional information they deem relevant in an emergency.

Each Diabetes E-Passport can be accessed via a central system so that all NHS trusts can edit and change profiles if necessary.

In the event that a profile needs to be accessed, the passport can be scanned by a QR reader, an NFC reader or the code can be entered directly into the central system.

If the person with diabetes is already known to the respondent, their details can be accessed through the central system within the NHS Trust without the passport.

Simon Blood, who is behind the Diabetes e-Passport project, said: “In October 2015 my mother was hospitalized with sepsis and five weeks. During their stay, I saw the reception of patients who had difficulty communicating and thought about how this could be improved. “

As a result, he created the Emergency Information Online (EIO) medical alert card. The card is the same size as the credit card and contains an NFC chip and QR code that allow access to a profile created by the patient. The profile enables the patient to exchange information about their allergies, medication, underlying diseases and relatives.

Simon added, “After launching the unknown EIO medical alert card, Sky News’s Stephen Dixon bought a card. Stephen lives with Type 1 Diabetes and upon receiving the card decided it would be good to share information about the card with Partha Kar who is the National Diabetes Specialist at NHS England. Partha then got in touch to see if we could further tweak the system behind the card to help those with diabetes.

“By working with a number of diabetes specialist nurses and meeting numerous diabetes advisors across the UK, we were initially able to develop a diabetes specialist department within the EIO Medical Alert Card. This then evolved into the Diabetes e-Passport, which was presented at the Diabetes Greenhouse Event in London in November 2018. “