Luke Pollard MP visits Kensa Health to discuss the future of Virtual Care

Kensa Health recently welcomed Luke Pollard, MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, to our Plymouth headquarters to discuss the future of Virtual Care, remote patient monitoring and how technology and data can support the NHS to deliver more proactive care closer to home.

Luke met with Andrew Pooley, CEO of Kensa Health, and Louise Murray, Managing Director of Kensa Health’s Virtual Care and Analytics capabilities, to learn more about our technology and how we are bringing together health, social care, technology and data to support people at home.

The visit came as the NHS continues its shift towards delivering more care outside traditional hospital settings, with national priorities focused on three key shifts: hospital to community, treatment to prevention and analogue to digital.

Looking at what comes next for Virtual Care

With virtual wards, Hospital at Home and remote patient monitoring already playing a growing role in how NHS services deliver care outside hospital, much of the conversation focused not simply on what Virtual Care can do today, but where it could go next.

Andrew and Louise demonstrated Kensa Health’s Virtual Care technology and discussed how health data can be captured remotely, including the role of connected devices, patients and carers in collecting observations. The conversation also explored the importance of information flowing into existing clinical systems and interoperability in making Virtual Care work effectively alongside existing NHS pathways.

Analytics was also a key part of the discussion, including how increasing volumes of remote patient monitoring data can be turned into meaningful insight to help healthcare teams recognise changes, prioritise intervention and make more informed decisions.

This builds on an important principle for Virtual Care: monitoring alone is not enough. Data needs to connect to clinical understanding and clear pathways for action, something Louise has previously explored in Technology Enabled Care That Does More Than Monitor.

The conversation also explored the potential to move beyond fixed thresholds towards a better understanding of an individual’s usual health. Building a clearer picture of what is normal for each person could help healthcare teams recognise meaningful changes sooner and support earlier intervention when someone’s health begins to deteriorate.

But the discussion went beyond technology and data alone. Louise highlighted the importance of making Virtual Care and care at home patient-centred, rather than treating someone’s healthcare, social care and independence needs separately. Kensa Health’s aim is to bring different expertise together around the individual to understand what support they need at home.

This could help Virtual Care evolve beyond supporting people who are already acutely unwell towards a more proactive and preventative model of care, while continuing to support established use cases such as admission avoidance, early discharge and Hospital at Home. It is an opportunity Christine Porter, Kensa Health’s Director of Healthcare Partnerships, recently explored in Introducing Christine Porter: Director of Healthcare Partnerships, including how earlier identification of change could help services intervene before someone reaches a crisis.

Andrew Pooley, CEO of Kensa Health, said:

“We were pleased to welcome Luke to Kensa Health and have such an engaged conversation about the future of Virtual Care and the role technology can play in supporting more care at home. The opportunity now is to look beyond monitoring people when they are already unwell and understand how technology and data could help us recognise change earlier and enable more proactive care. We’re proud to be developing that technology here in Plymouth.”

Supporting innovation from Plymouth

The discussion also highlighted the potential for technology developed in Plymouth to support health and care services more widely.

The visit also provided an opportunity to discuss some of the wider challenges involved in scaling digital health innovation across the NHS, including consistent approaches to data and commissioning, and the importance of demonstrating the real-world impact of new models of care.

Luke Pollard MP said:

“It was great to visit Kensa Health and see some of the health technology being developed right here in Plymouth. We had a really interesting discussion about how Virtual Care and better use of health data could help spot changes in people’s health earlier, support more people to receive care at home and take pressure off busy hospitals like Derriford.”

Kensa Health brings together capabilities across Home Care, Virtual Care and Analytics, which can be delivered individually or together to support more proactive, connected models of care.

We work with health and care organisations across the UK to support earlier intervention, improve outcomes and enable more people to receive the right care at home and in their communities.

Find out more

If you're exploring remote patient monitoring, virtual wards, Hospital at Home or how data and analytics could support more proactive care and earlier intervention, contact our team to discuss how Kensa Health could support your organisation.