A novel way to reduce emergency department wait times via a mobile app has won this year’s WA Health Hackathon.
The ‘Waiting Around’ tool leverages technology and data to predict emergency department wait times and relay this to patients via a mobile app, giving patients more information on how busy an ED might be before they attend.
Its main aim is to improve the quality, efficiency and accessibility of healthcare services to help reduce pressure on emergency departments.
‘Waiting Around’ team member Conor Bennett said wait time predictions are based on a range of factors and information is also supplied to the hospital to support analytics and to optimise patient wait times.
“We’re now aiming to get our innovation trialled in an actual emergency department, to get important feedback from hospital staff as well as patients, and see how we can most practically implement the system,” Mr Bennett said.
Emergency departments often come under pressure for a myriad of reasons from spikes in winter illnesses, a surge in ambulance arrivals, patients attending ED unnecessarily, and shortages of staff.
Latest data show just 28% of triage 3 (urgent) emergency department attendances at all WA public hospitals in September were seen within the recommended time of 30 minutes, while 44.9% of triage 4 (semi-urgent) were seen within the recommended time of one hour.
Figures were similar in the peak winter months of June, July and August, an indicating that pressure on emergency departments remains a key concern.
The Hackathon was hosted by the WA Data Science Innovation Hub (WADSIH) and saw technologists, software developers and other participants devising solutions to some of the challenges facing healthcare systems across the state.
WADSIH director Alex Jenkins said the event was an invaluable opportunity for teams to collaborate with the best and brightest in WA’s technology sector, while working to develop solutions that could transform the state’s healthcare system.
“Participants were given access to supporting data and expert mentors as they created digital solutions and new technologies to address challenges such as improving end-of-life care and predicting emergency department wait times,” he said.
“Teams also had access to cutting-edge synthetic data to help bring their ideas to life, with the potential to prototype their solutions.
“This year’s main winner, ‘Waiting Around’, leveraged technology to improve the quality, efficiency and accessibility of healthcare services, by devising a simulation tool to predict emergency department waiting times and communicate this information to patients via a mobile phone app.”
The event was held on October 24 and supported by the WA Department of Health, WA Life Science Hub, the North Metropolitan Health Service, the Child and Adolescent Health Service, and Arkahna.
WADSIH is a state government initiative, supported by Curtin University, that aims to keep WA at the forefront of the digital revolution by promoting the education, training and application of data science throughout WA.