Evaluating the impact and economics of HealthTech-1

How we worked with Health Innovation KSS and HealthTech-1

Unity Insights were commissioned by Health Innovation KSS and HealthTech-1 to complete a mixed-methods evaluation into the impact of HealthTech-1’s automated GP registration. HealthTech-1 enables GPs to automate their registration process, supporting more comprehensive data collection locally, whilst freeing time of administration staff within the practice. The evaluation provided a health economic assessment of HealthTech-1, in addition to analysing whether automated processes increased the volume of data captured on registrants at the point of registration.

What were the impacts of the evaluation?

Following successful applications to receive patient-level EPACT2 datasets, Unity Insights deployed various quantitative methods to evidence the change in coding completion on specific data fields captured within a GP practice’s local form on registration, including ethnicity, alcohol screening activity, smoking status and carer status. Surveys to participating practices were deployed the gauge the time saved from registrations being automated, and these findings were incorporated into a health-economic cost-benefit analysis model to estimate potential returns realised by GP practices and the wider NHS system.

Value for money: Estimating the benefit of HealthTech-1

To evidence HealthTech-1’s value for money, data from EPACT2, surveys, and additional literature review was combined within a cost-benefit analysis, with Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis also conducted. Across 3 scenarios, HealthTech-1 was estimated to deliver a cost-benefit ratio of £1.48 – £1.58 for every £1 invested.

Improving coding in GP systems

Implementation of HealthTech-1 supports GP practices to capture a greater amount of information on a patient at the point of registration. The evaluation set out to understand whether HealthTech-1 saw an increase in clinical coding completion across various domains, with the greatest impact witnessed across ethnicity coding, alcohol screening activity, and an individual’s smoking status and carers status.

What value did the evaluation add?

As a result of Unity Insights’ work, there is now a clear economic case for the implementation of HealthTech-1 in GP practices, supported by additional quantitative findings on the improvement of GP systems’ clinical coding. These findings may be used to generated future business cases, supporting the further spread and adoption of HealthTech-1, whilst also releasing time within GP practices for staff to deliver additional proactive care to patients as opposed to completing timely manual forms.