About Our Dorset Digital
Our Dorset Digital develop and embed digital healthcare tools and technologies to support Dorset residents, NHS staff and frontline teams.
Our mission is to empower self-care and enable the people of Dorset to confidently manage their health, mental health, wellbeing and
long-term conditions.
myCOPD
The myCOPD app can better help you self-manage your condition, especially in light of COVID-19.
The app offers many features including: education courses, inhaler videos, symptom tracking, medication diary and self-management planning.
If you have been referred to myCOPD by your clinical team, please watch these short videos to learn more about the platform and how using myCOPD helped Paul.
Online Health and Care App Library
Apps and digital health solutions are growing as a natural part of the day-to-day management of health and care conditions. This provides apps that are secure with your data privacy and have been proven in clinical safety to support you in your own home.
To help you with your diet as you get older, please visit British Dietic Association or Malnutrition Taskforce.
The NHS App
This app enables you to check your symptoms and find help when you need it urgently with 111 online, as well as links for health information. You can also view your GP medical record securely and order repeat prescriptions.
Online Consultations
Our online consultations are powered by platforms including eConsult, SystmConnect, Anima and Klinik. This allows patients to submit their symptoms or requests to their own GP electronically, and offers around the clock NHS self-help information, signposting to services, and a symptom checker.
Online Video Consultations
Your GP or healthcare professional may offer you a video consultation as an alternative to face-to-face consultations. This can help make life easier for you by reducing the need to travel to a clinic for appointments, saving you money and time.
- 95% of patients would be likely to recommend video consultation to a friend or family member
- 95% of patients found their appointment easy or very easy to access
- 93% of patients felt that video consultation was an appropriate alternative to a face-to-face appointment
- Over 50,000 video consultations have taken place in secondary care since March 2020.
“I’m really appreciative of the video consultation option. As my mother’s carer, it’s fantastic not to have to disturb her by taking her all the way into hospital. I hope this will remain an option, as it’s really brilliant for those of us who have internet access and enough IT skills to handle it.”
“Avoided perceived worries regarding COVID-19”.
“Although I wasn’t confident in my technology capabilities, the video consultation was really straightforward and helpful. Would definitely do it again rather than travel to hospital.”
“I have twins and taking them both to hospital is very difficult unless my husband takes time off work.”
“I felt more [comfortable] to talk about anything as I was at home. I did not have the ‘white shirt’ problem”.
BloodPressure@Home
What is Hypertension?
High blood pressure, also known as hypertension or raised blood pressure, is when your blood pressure, the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your blood vessels, is consistently too high. Around a third of adults in the UK have high blood pressure, although many will not realise it. The only way to find out if your blood pressure is high is to have your blood pressure checked. High blood pressure rarely has noticeable symptoms, but persistent and untreated high blood pressure can increase the risk of several serious and potentially life-threatening health conditions such as heart attacks and strokes.
Remote monitoring for people with high blood pressure with Viso (previously known as Hypertension Plus)
In line with NHS England recommendations, NHS Dorset is working in partnership with Omron Healthcare to implement blood pressure (BP) monitoring at home for Dorset residents with a diagnosis of hypertension, enabling treatment to be optimised where necessary. Dorset GP practices are providing the tools to support Dorset residents to monitor and manage their blood pressure remotely in conjunction with their clinical team.
Register for Viso
Registration via your GP practice: If you meet the eligibility criteria you will be contacted by your GP Practice, inviting you to register with the Viso programme.
Invites will typically be sent via SMS text message, requesting you to accept or decline the invitation. In order to help us understand our patients’ use of technology, we will also send a text message via SMS asking you to answer a few questions about your use of technology and how confident you feel. Responding is optional.
Self registration: People can also self-register for the service.
Both services require you to register with your NHS login details.
To find out more, check if your GP practice is participating by clicking on the list of practices and using the link to register.
Patients requiring help with digital literacy can contact the Dorset Digital Champions by calling the Dorset Digital Hotline on 01305 221048.
What happens once I’ve registered?
Once you have registered using your NHS login details, you will see the list of programmes your clinician has enrolled you for including the Viso programme and a video tutorial related to the OMRON platform. If you see a screen asking you to wait for your GP to create a treatment plan, it means that you have successfully logged in but need to wait for a treatment plan to access the rest of Viso. Once your GP has done so, Viso will automatically bring you to the next screen when you next open the app.
If you are facing problems on the NHS login page, check the NHS login help centre or contact NHS login directly. You can get help for setting up your NHS login, changing your password and other information, and resolving other errors showing on the NHS login page.
During the sign in process, you may be prompted to “prove who you are” and verify your identity to a high level with NHS login. To get help with this process, check the NHS login help centre or contact NHS login directly.
Our Dorset health and care video library
The library contains simple and engaging videos to help our patients access quality and assured health information, which have been developed and approved by NHS clinicians. These videos offer a practical alternative to written information and aim to help our patients take better control of their health, and provide education and support to manage long-term health conditions.
