ePAQ Systems Ltd has been formed out of a partnership of medical and IT professionals, with over 50 years experience of working within the NHS and the UK healthcare industry. Together we have created an "electronic Personal Assessment Questionnaire" system (ePAQ) which comprises a variety of validated health questionnaires designed to be completed easily by patients either in the community or in healthcare settings.
ePAQ has been developed to be simple, secure, flexible and intuitive. It is aimed at reducing the amount of time and number of visits patients would have to make to clinic, while also aiming to help clinicians get as much information as possible about a patient's health and condition.
ePAQ is an interactive Personal Assessment Questionnaire designed for use in the community as well as in normal & specialist medical practice.
Questionnaires can be completed via the internet in a patient's own time, or on computers or tablets in clinic. They are designed with simple questions which mirror those asked by clinicians. This gives clinicians the opportunity to review information about the patient before they arrive in clinic and allows patients the freedom to answer questions without embarrassment, and in their own time.
ePAQ questionnaires have been designed by clinicians to represent the questions they would ask, to find the information they want to know.
ePAQ is an interactive, web based, interview system designed for use in routine clinical care to combine the accuracy and reliability of validated self-completed questionnaires with "intelligent" computer software.
ePAQ is a browser based software application, accessible from any networked computer, smartphone or tablet and supports multiple users simultaneously e.g. a clinic environment. The system can be hosted by ePAQ Systems Ltd or individual Trusts.
The system has been developed from instruments used as Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) and facilitates communication and consultation, as well as service evaluation, audit research in addition to supporting devolved care e.g. Nurse-led and "Virtual Clinics".
ePAQ comprises separate but integrated questionnaire and management systems, which communicate via secure WCF web services:
ePAQ can be used both within and external to healthcare settings through the issue of unique voucher code, generated at the time of appointment booking or hospital attendance. Vouchers allow the patient to log-on, utilising their unique voucher code and date of birth. These vouchers are specific to each questionnaire system (N3 or W3) so it is important to understand where the patient will be completing the questionnaire before issuing. Issued vouchers will either allow the patient to complete the questionnaire in clinic (via N3) or they can use a voucher which allows them to complete the questionnaire in their own time, on their own device (via the Internet). Once a questionnaire is completed, a full report of a patient's answers can be viewed with both summary information and detailed question by question responses.
In clinics, Trust-networked computers or portable devices e.g. iPads are generally used for routine clinic use.
ePAQ reports can be used in combination with telephone consultation to triage, initiate treatment and follow up patients. Patients with internet access complete ePAQ from home at https://start.epaq.co.uk using a unique code (voucher) issued by their healthcare provider, itself embedded in an explanatory letter (PDF) automatically generated on issuing of a voucher.
Following questionnaire completion, patient response data are imported into the management system, where these data are linked to the patient's demographics, stored securely behind an established firewall which enables the management system to access the system on WWW. This pathway is now being used for new and follow-up patients to realise potential cost savings for both patients and providers in addition to environmental societal benefits through reduced hospital visits.
ePAQ has been developed to be intuitiveand easy to use for all levels of computer user. The software has different user roles to ensure administrative tasks and usage reporting can only be carried out by specifically authorised personel. Each management system is customisable to suit a particular clinic or hospital and contains a number of different reporting tools. Once complete a full report of a patient's questionnaire answers can be viewed with both summary information and detailed question by question analysis. In the case of Pre-Operative Assessment the report is interactive and editable.
Full software training and support is available.