LOCAL health chiefs running a Dragons' Den style challenge to find a new way for technology to benefit thousands of Bradford patients have chosen an online app as the winner.

The innovative myCOPD app teaches patients who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease better inhaler techniques and skills to help prevent their condition getting worse.

Its designer, Bournemouth-based My mHealth Ltd, also hopes that by keeping COPD patients healthier, they will be able to avoid unplanned hospital admissions, reducing pressures on the NHS. There are 10,000 people district-wide who have COPD.

The Bradford Bright Ideas challenge was announced in October 2016 by NHS Bradford City and NHS Bradford Districts Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in collaboration with health and connection hubs Medipex and DHEZ Ltd. Small and medium sized enterprises countrywide were asked to submit bids outlining how their technology could help address three key health and wellbeing challenges in Bradford.

Those challenges were to reduce high level A&E attendances and unplanned short-stay admissions of children with acute breathing problems such as asthma, to help patients stick to their medicine routines and reduce medicine waste and finally to cut down on unnecessary outpatient referrals and follow-ups by improving co-ordination between care services in the communities and in hospitals.

More than 25 expressions of interest were made and reviewed over a two-stage selection process, with each bid checked to see if it could improve patient outcomes at low cost, alongside factors such as achievability and potential impact.

Five finalists were then selected to pitch to a panel of experts at the end of January.

Dr Andy Withers, clinical chairman of NHS Bradford Districts CCG said: “This has been a fantastic opportunity to learn about some of the technology that small and medium-sized enterprises are developing which have the potential to help with some of the big health and wellbeing issues here in Bradford. We picked the myCOPD app as it was clear to see how this can work in practice to really benefit our patient population. It also fits well with our other innovative initiatives to help patients better manage COPD.”

Over the next year, Medipex, DHEZ and the Bradford CCGs will work closely with MyMHealth and other stakeholders, including local GP practices and patients to implement myCOPD.

Other finalists included a prescription ordering and management service and a digital tool for improving patients sticking to their regular medication.