Patient experience and care is being improved in Sri Lanka thanks to funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
This funding has been allocated to a team of health experts from the University of Birmingham and Sri Lanka to develop, implement and evaluate a digitally integrated care pathway across Sri Lankan health records. The £3.8 million investment comes through the Research on Interventions for Global Health Transformation (RIGHT) programme, as the NIHR looks to improve standards in low to middle-income countries.
Patients with multiple long-term conditions will be the focus of the plan, with MLTCs becoming increasingly more common thanks to the fact that people are now living longer, and adopting more unhealthy lifestyles. Considering this, the programme will use advanced digital technologies to create a comprehensive care pathway for the management of combinations of conditions including:
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
- Cardiovascular disease
- Chronic kidney disease
- Mental health issues
The NIHR’s Professor Krishnarajah Nirantharakumar said:
“This project represents a significant step forward in our efforts to harness digital technologies to improve healthcare delivery in resource-limited settings. We are excited to work with our partners in Sri Lanka to develop solutions that can make a real difference in the lives of patients with multiple long-term conditions.”
Through the partnership between the UK and Sri Lanka, experts from the University of Birmingham will work alongside their counterparts from Jaffna, Colombo, Kelaniya and Sabaragamuwa on the creation and the piloting of the digitally integrated care pathway.
The importance of this programme is emphasised by the fact that recent research shows that 32% of people aged 50 or older in Sri Lanka had MLTCs, with this increasing to 46% when additional conditions are considered.
Image credit: iStock
