MedShr – the private, professional network for clinical case discussion – has today announced the launch of MedShr Local Networks, which will offer private groups to connect local GPs and hospital doctors in NHS trusts. Dr Asif Qasim, Founder and CEO, hopes that this will lead to better clinical decision-making: “With better communication and collaboration between GPs and hospital doctors, we can improve the quality of care and use case discussion as a vehicle to improve care pathways.”

A recent report by DeepMind Health, covered by the Guardian, revealed that many NHS clinicians are sending patient images through unsafe channels such as Snapchat, which is “insecure, risky, and non-auditable.” MedShr was developed specifically to provide medical professionals with a safe platform for clinical case discussion. The app and web platform allow members to share cases with over 250,000 verified medical professionals from all over the world, or privately with a group or individual.

MedShr Local Networks have been developed to encourage collaboration between primary and secondary care in specific areas, and facilitate peer-to-peer learning while protecting patient information. Clinical case discussion supports clinicians in referrals, decision-making and follow-up, and ultimately saves the NHS time and money. Local Networks will focus initially on specialties that are targets for improvements in quality, pathway efficiency, and market share. 

MedShr Local Networks has been piloted with Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, who are digital leaders in pioneering the approach. CHS benefits from an asynchronous closed learning environment in which allocated faculty leads are responsible for leading case discussion. Groups include an overarching Croydon Case Discussion Group, as well as groups for Haematology, Cardiology and Urgent and Emergency Care. These groups contain only approved members who can view and contribute to case discussions. Cases with photos or movies require patient consent and are fully anonymised, which makes MedShr a fully GMC-compliant network.

In addition to the Local Networks framework, MedShr’s private clinical case discussion groups are currently being rolled out to replace traditional multidisciplinary meetings (MDMs) for a number of private London hospitals. Providing a platform for virtual MDMs facilitates high quality patient case discussion and clinical decision making without the often difficult requirement of a face-to-face meeting. In an increasingly time-pressured healthcare environment, MedShr’s new system strives to make achieving best practice patient care easier than ever before.

Dr Asif Qasim says “MedShr Local Networks facilitates private and safe case discussion and collaboration between primary and secondary care professionals in a new and exciting way. We know this is a great way to bring clinicians closer together and improve the quality of care.”

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