GP NEAR ME – EARLY ADOPTER USER EXPERIENCE NOTES

1         Platform & Connectivity

We tried GP Near Me (NHS Highland implementation of the Attend Anywhere platform) in the following configurations:

• GP Practice – WiFi over 10Mb synchronous connection
  • Laptop
  • Desktop PC with webcam/microphone
  • Smartphone
• Home – domestic ADSL2 WiFi (no superfast BB FTTC option available) and 4G
  • Laptop
  • Smartphone

In each case the users tried to access the GP Near Me platform both as a clinician and as a patient logging into the waiting room and carrying out a consultation.

We found that the platform worked best for us (video quality, audio quality, speed of response) on a personal smartphone. This always seemed to work better than laptop or PC once the connection was established. Our broadband and hardware are far from best in class so it may be that newer desktop hardware especially is able to support a bigger, higher quality image.

2         Browser setup

Attend Anywhere requires particular browsers to be used:

• Google Chrome (Android devices, Windows PC)
• Safari (Apple devices)

If the default browser on your device is not Chrome, then the browser window opens with an error message but there is a button displayed towards the bottom of the screen which allows the user to Copy the session URL link to the clipboard. This is very helpful because the URL is specific to each session and is much too long to recreate by any other means.

We have experienced repeated problems with Safari connections where the session is established with video but no audio available. Choosing the REFRESH button seems to fix this problem. DO NOT close the browser and reopen as this locks the session for the user and can be difficult to re-enter.

3         Consultation setup

Clinicians find that using GP Near Me on their smartphone has an unexpected benefit. The smart device becomes “the patient” in the room and can be placed on the desk to the side of the desktop PC which has the patient record open. Thus the clincian’s focus switches between the record and the patient, just like in a normal consultation. This is more natural for consultation flow and it is obvious to the patient when they are being spoken to directly to enable the conversation to be more natural.

Andrew Vickerstaff, March 2020.