WISGO
Transforming the world of illness assessment
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WISGO Medical is an R&D and MedTech company with a mission to transform illness severity assessment for both children and adults.
The Challenge for Healthcare Professionals
The ability to distinguish serious treatable illness from minor self-limiting conditions is fundamental to the successful clinical management of any illness.
The main deficiencies in the current healthcare approach are :
1. PEWS and NEWS-2 scores can miss significant illness
The most common Early Warning Scores in use in the UK are NEWS2 (adults) and PEWS (children). Their core content are values for pulse, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, temperature, blood pressure (& capillary refill for children) to create a single numerical Early Warning score.
A high score suggests high severity, and a need to escalate care. Conversely, in theory, a low score points to a low severity, with reassurance that care escalation is unnecessary.
The ‘predictive value’ of Early Warning Scores, i.e. the ability to distinguish early stages of serious but treatable conditions, from minor self-limiting problems, has been found to be less than ideal.
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A high score has indeed been found to be an accurate predictor of serious illness. However, research has indicated that a low score may miss serious conditions. This is described as high specificity and low sensitivity.
2. Manual vital signs acquisition
Typically, the vital signs which are used to populate either NEWS2 or PEWS Scores are obtained manually with 5 different devices.
Time constraints and lack of easy access to these devices in a busy clinic often mean that the vital signs for these scores are not measured accurately, fully or sometimes not at all.
Additionally, time constraints and limited immediate access to age (=size) critical equipment can often result in compromised scores for children.
This manual, non-digital methodology is therefore an inefficient, repetitive and unrewarding use of an expensive health professional’s time.
3. The absence of pre-consultation patient engagement
The patient / carer is in the pivotal position to influence the overall outcome of their illness by sharing relevant and accurate information with the health professional.
Typically, patients face an empty 1 or 2+ hours, before eventually being called in from the waiting room to begin their consultation. Often with inadequate mental preparation, medical knowledge or language, they find themselves confronted with the urgent responsibility of providing a complete and coherent description of their medical problem.
Not surprisingly this sequence of events frequently delivers sub-optimal results. Important symptoms or background features can be overlooked in the haste of a pressured consultation.
Why not make use of this un-used waiting room opportunity ?
Tripoint System
As a response to these issues, WISGO has developed the ‘Tripoint’ system.
Tripoint utilises 3 entirely different Point-of-Care methodologies to deliver a triangulated real-time report.
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1. Medical event questionnaire
A structured questionnaire that will support the patient/carer with creating a high-quality clinical event summary to ensure that not only are the relevant clinical questions always remembered and therefore answered, but also that the patient’s/carer’s own viewpoint and concerns can be recorded.
2. Multiple vital signs measurements to calculate Clinical Early Warning Scores (NEWS-2 & PEWS)
To generate an Early Warning Score, the vital signs are measured using a bespoke clinical-standard wearable bio-sensor. This removes the requirement, inconvenience and staff cost of using oximeters, thermometers, blood pressure cuffs and a highly skilled health professional counting breaths for 60 seconds.
3. An Inflammatory Marker
To assess the severity of illness by measuring the degree of inflammation with which the body’s defence system is responding.
Consequently, not only will Tripoint increase productivity by the saving of significant time/resources but will also fundamentally improve the clinical performance of the healthcare professional.
This is done by delivering very relevant information to support the healthcare professional with either the identification or exclusion of severe illness and thereby supporting subsequent optimal clinical management.
Tripoint Overview
Our Goal
By separating the “serious” from the “benign”, WISGO will help to ensure each ill-health patient gets the right care at the right time, avoiding mismanagement with associated costs and complications. ​
Our Vision
With the assistance of the health professional to enable a member of the public, to use our consumer solution, to support the optimal triage of their own or family member medical problem.
As a low cost, easy to use and accessible solution, WISGO will be a tool and a means to address the ‘Inverse Care Law’ (Patients who have the greatest need have least access to resources.
Inverse care law – Tudor Hart)
