Two of the island’s junior doctors have won a £4,000 prize fund to develop a smartphone application for medical professionals at Noble’s Hospital.
Ben Lambden and Mustafa Jaafar took part in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style contest that invited doctors to pitch their ideas to improve their workplaces.
The pair teamed up to design an app that can help doctors prescribe antibiotics which was awarded the top prize by a panel of NHS executives from across the North West of England.
The funding is being put towards developing the app, which will guide doctors through a prescribing process tailored to Noble’s Hospital’s prescription protocols. It will not use patient data.
Dr Jaafar said: ‘As doctors we are all too aware of the threat posed by antibiotic resistance and we all have a role to play in tackling it.
‘Dr Lambden had previously carried out an audit of antibiotic stewardship at Noble’s Hospital, which showed there was room for improvement in how we diagnosed specific infections and prescribed these drugs. We decided to examine how we could help address that problem as quickly, easily and cost effectively as possible.’
He added: ‘We wanted our app to help doctors to prescribe the most appropriate antibiotics in a busy ward environment, consistently, quickly and efficiently, whilst also reducing the possibility for human error.’
Doctors Lambden and Jaafar will leave the island after completing their second year foundation training in July, but hope to have the app in place before their departure.