Electronic Frailty Index wins national healthcare award
A system that can identify people with frailty from electronic health records has won a national award, in recognition of its innovative approach to the care of older people
The Electronic Frailty Index (eFI) helps primary care providers identify older people who face an increased risk of care home admission, hospitalisation and mortality by using information within the patient’s electronic health record.
It won the Innovation category of the RCP Excellence in Patient Care Awards 2017, which recognises the work done by physicians to improve patient-centred care. The team behind the development of the index, includes researchers from the University of Bradford. They will also find out later this month if they have won a Medipex Innovation Award, set up to celebrate technologies that have succeeded in improving the efficiency of healthcare services.
The Index was developed in a collaborative partnership between the University of Bradford, TPP, the University of Leeds, the University of Birmingham and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and funded by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care, Yorkshire and Humber (NIHR CLAHRC YH).
It has now been adopted by Clinical Commissioning Groups and GPs across the country, who are using it to help implement a variety of measures to help people with different levels of frailty. These could range from self-management support for people with mild frailty, proactive falls prevention measures for people with moderate frailty, or medication reviews for those with severe frailty.
in the , at the University of Bradford, is part of the team that developed the eFI. He says: “The development of the electronic Frailty Index demonstrates how electronic health records can be used to improve the care for patients in this digital era."