A Chat with David Ezra, Director at HealthTech Company: Vantage Health

Vantage Health is a healthcare technology company that provides technology-driven solutions to the NHS as part of its mission to help transform the way healthcare is delivered. With a 12-year heritage, Vantage Health delivers outpatient transformation using a tailored, AI-powered solution – Rego – that helps GPs and dentists direct patients to the best care option by automating pathways. By enabling GPs to better utilise NHS services and direct patients to the right local treatment first time, as well as reduce clerical and clinical workloads, Rego is a solution to relieve much-needed pressure on the NHS.

The only platform of its kind in the UK, Rego is fully integrated with eRS and uses AI to automate pathways that have been developed by clinicians using local and national guidelines. It acts as a decision support tool for referrers, taking into account referral details, past medical history, national and local service directories, the competencies of each provider service, and local and national care pathways.

The result is a system that works with all referrals, eRS or outside of eRS. Rego will route the referrals to community services such as physiotherapy or to locally commissioned specialist outreach clinics. This enables the GP to correctly refer to the preferred option each time, without having to keep up-to-date email lists and minus the need to collect individual referral forms for each service.

Rego has proven to flatten the waiting list curve in 10 months, improve the chances of early treatment and free up essential healthcare resource-saving the NHS over £200 million each year. Since the onset of Covid-19, Rego has helped 25,000 users in medical and dental practices across the country successfully manage patient demand. Rego enables GPs to refer patients to the right provider within 45 seconds – up to 20 times faster than current systems.
 
 
Vantage Health - DigitalHealth.London
 

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
The idea for Vantage Health was my own brainchild, where I now serve as a clinical liaison and transformation director for the company. I have specialised in AI-driven outpatient transformation for the past 14 years, including early work on the development of remote ECG reports and many successes in Tele-dermatology.

I’m proud to have spearheaded the development of Rego, and I am passionate about working with clinicians and commissioners to understand and automate patient pathways, and my work in this field has been used by tens of thousands of clinicians, to refer millions of patients.
 

 

How has the company evolved during the pandemic?

 
Covid-19 has emphasised the need to manage healthcare resources and services efficiently, particularly where it impacts on demand. The unprecedented rise in hospital admissions during the outbreak of the pandemic placed a huge strain on secondary care with the vast majority of consultants moved to the front line. As outpatient services were subsequently restricted during the national lockdown, the need to identify and treat suspect cancer and urgent cases became a priority.

In response to the crisis, Vantage Health was asked by LNWUHT to adapt their AI-powered Rego platform in order to enable GPs to obtain rapid access to Consultant advice and guidance across all specialties. From April 2020, Rego A&G was rolled out in a phased implementation across all GP practices Brent, Harrow & Ealing CCGs. Within weeks, the service was also delivered to Hillingdon CCG to connect local GPs to Hillingdon Health Trust and several community providers.

During this 6-month period, Rego A&G has enabled consultants to triage over 60% of requests to be treated within primary care and ensure that patients requiring an outpatient appointment are prioritised. Whilst improving patient care and achieving high GP satisfaction, the service has also been highly effective in helping reduce pressure on hospital waiting lists.
 

What can we hope to see from Vantage Health in the future?

 
The acquisition of Vantage Health by Northgate Public Service (NPS), a leading software and services provider to the public sector in the UK and a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation, brings exciting opportunities for the company. It combines NPS’s expertise of managing successful health screening programmes like hearing and diabetic eye screening, with Vantage Health’s ability to transform outpatient care to give healthcare providers the tools they need to quickly identify patients who need specialist services and then help them direct the patient to the right support service instantly.