New App for St. James’s

Sarah Morrow (left) and Grainne Kennedy (middle) with Kerrill Thornhill, Managing Director of MEG Support Tools and Fiach Mac Conghail, Chief Executive Officer at The Digital Hub. Credit: The Digital Hub

A new app has been launched to help people navigate the 60-acre campus of St. James’ Hospital.

Being the largest acute teaching hospital in the country, there is a substantial amount of foot traffic with almost 300,000 outpatients coming through the door each year. The app will assist patients, visitors and staff in finding their way across the ever-expanding campus located in Dublin 8.

“Mobile devices and apps provide many benefits for patients and healthcare workers. Our goal is to provide hospitals like St. James’ with smartphone technology to enable staff and visitors with access to critical information at their fingertips,” said Kerrill Thornhill, Managing Director of MEG Support Tools, who spoke at the app’s launch.

The app was developed by Dr. Chris Soraghan and Anthony Edwards from St James’ Hospital in conjunction with MEG Support Tools. It was also founded by St. James’ Hospital Foundation and The Digital Hub.

“This new app will provide an important service to all those who need to find their way around St. James’ constantly growing and developing campus. Users will be able to quickly and easily find out where they are and how to get where they need to be,” said Lorcan Birthistle, CEO of St. James’ Hospital.

“I’d like to thank MEG Support Tools and the Digital Hub for their support in helping to provide this modern new feature to our patients and visitors to St. James’ Hospital.”

The app includes travel instructions and public transport information, as well as maps and guides to accessing different parts of the campus. There are also a number of instruction videos explaining how to get from place to place.

As the campus continues to expand, the app will also alert users to any important changes such as new buildings or services moving to a different location. All maps and images are also available to users even when they are offline.

“It is not unusual to see a patient trying to navigate the hospital campus on the way to an appointment,” said Dr Chris Soraghan, Clinical Engineer from St. James’ Hospital. “There was an obvious need to assist these patients, so, working with Anthony Edwards, Clinical Photographer, we decided to develop this app.

“The app will assist all those making their way around our campus; patients, visitors and staff alike. The hospital is continually evolving and it is important that the app is able to grow as the hospital develops; the content management system on MEG Support Tools platform allows for this continued development.”

The ‘suggest changes’ button also gives users the opportunity to give feedback on their experience using the app and how the user experience can be improved while in the hospital.

The Dublin 8 based company, The Digital Hub, co-founded the project. “We are delighted to have supported such an innovative initiative with our neighbours in St. James’s Hospital,” said Fiach Mac Conghail, Chief Executive Officer.

“This project is a great example of connected health in action and how The Digital Hub can really add value, connecting technology enterprises in our cluster to provide solutions for healthcare providers in our local community.”