Lifelight provides blood pressure checking to enable preventative health care with Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System

Lifelight provides blood pressure checking to enable preventative health care with Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System

Lifelight reaching patients who don’t normally get their blood pressure checked whilst they receive their Covid booster, lowering CVD risk

Lifelight is excited to announce a partnership with Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System to provide blood pressure checking at a number of its vaccination centres.

Already live at the Health Hub in Festival Place shopping centre in Basingstoke, Hampshire and supported by NHS innovation adoption organisation Wessex Academic Health Science Network (Wessex AHSN), the Lifelight self-service kiosk offers patients the opportunity to check their blood pressure whilst attending for their Covid booster.

Lifelight is available for patients to check themselves, with on-screen instructions to guide them.  As well as providing fast vital signs readings, one of the key benefits of Lifelight is the patient experience - zero contact – no uncomfortable cuff, no need to undress, no wearables – patients simply look at an iPad screen for 40 seconds.  Their vital sign readings – Pulse, Respiration and Blood Pressure are then linked back to their medical records, allowing abnormal readings to be flagged to their GP for any necessary interventions.

Lifelight is already uncovering  people who have now been advised to continually monitor their blood pressure as a precautionary follow on for a period of time, along with immediate referrals to their GP.  Without Lifelight these patients would not have known they had low or high blood pressure, the latter carrying a greater risk of Cardiovascular disease, still the leading cause of death - globally.[i]  Due to the strong uptake to date by patients, a second self-service kiosk is now being installed at Festival Place and further sites implemented across the county.

Speaking about the rollout, Tim Cooper, Deputy Chief Medical Officer at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board said, “The ability for our patients to have their blood pressure and other vitals checked at the same time as receiving their Covid or flu vaccine just makes sense for both patient and the NHS. We’re finding patients who had no idea they had hypertension getting picked up by Lifelight, allowing us to intervene so they can receive the right care to manage their condition. Too many patients unfortunately only realise they have high blood pressure when they find themselves in hospital with a heart attack or stroke. By championing the innovative technology we’re not only caring for our patients better but also helping to ease the burden on our already overstretched emergency departments and other services, especially at this time of year. Given the success at Festival Place, we’re hoping to roll out Lifelight at further sites across Hampshire.”

As blood pressure is the best single physiological indicator for Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and 43% of people with hypertension in the UK are undiagnosed,[ii] the aim of

Lifelight is to reach the unreached.  Uncovering those people at most risk, living with undiagnosed CVD, especially after the last 2 years of the pandemic, resulting in patients having fewer health checks.

The latest statistics from the British Heart Foundation suggest that as many as 7 million adults in the UK alone could be living with undiagnosed high blood pressure (hypertension).  Additionally, of the hypertensive patients who already know they have high blood pressure, 46% do not own a BP cuff and those that do own a cuff - only 1% use them frequently or correctly.[iii]  This is where Lifelight can really drive efficiencies and economies with improved outcomes, address healthcare inequalities and ultimately save more lives, by highlighting patients at risk of CVD early and providing access to the right care pathway.

Laurence Pearce, Lifelight’s CEO & founder said, “According to GOV.UK, the cost to the NHS of high blood pressure is estimated at £2.1bn every year.  However, high blood pressure is preventable, and for those with high blood pressure a reduction of just 10mmHg can significantly reduce their risk of a heart attack or stroke. This means identifying, diagnosing and managing hypertension is more vital now than ever, which Lifelight can support either stand-alone using the patient’s own smartphone or at scale embedded into existing healthcare platforms and pathways.  We’re driven by the success and acceptance of Lifelight by patients at Festival Place and look forward to having more self-service kiosks at health hubs and diagnostic centres across the UK and beyond.”

[i] World Health Organization - 2022

[ii] 43% of people with hypertension in UK are undiagnosed - GOV UK / PHE - 2017

[iii] Even for the diagnosed 46% do not own a BP cuff - Anbarasan et al – 2021