St. James’s Hospital Launches New Campus Guide App

St. James’s Hospital is pleased to announce the launch of its brand new app: The St. James’s Hospital Campus Guide. The app was designed to help patients, visitors and staff to navigate their way around St. James’s constantly developing 60-acre site. St. James’s hospital is the largest acute teaching hospital in Ireland and with almost 300,000 outpatient sessions a year. The hospital sees a heavy amount of foot traffic. The app was developed by Anthony Edwards and Dr Chris Soraghan from St. James’s Hospital in conjunction with MEG Support Tools, and was jointly funded by St. James’s Hospital Foundation and The Digital Hub, all based in the emerging med tech corridor of Dublin 8.

Some of the features of the app include instructions on how to get to the hospital, information about public transport options, maps for different areas of the campus and video guides showing users how to get from place to place. The app also features alerts which highlight key changes to the campus, including the development of new buildings or when services move from one location to another. Users can also give the hospital their input by using the ‘suggest change button’ to provide feedback on how the app can be improved. Maps and images within the app are available to users even when they’re offline.

Lorcan Birthistle, the CEO of St. James’s Hospital said: “This new app will provide an important service to all those who need to find their way around St. James’s 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. 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’s Hospital.”

Dr Chris Soraghan, Clinical Engineer from St. James’s Hospital said: “It is not unusual to see a patient trying to navigate the hospital campus on the way to an appointment. 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.”

Commenting on The Digital Hub’s role as a co-funder behind the development of the St. James’s Hospital Campus Guide App, Fiach Mac Conghail, Chief Executive Officer at The Digital Hub said: “We are delighted to have supported such an innovative initiative with our neighbours in St. James’s Hospital.  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.”

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

The St. James’s Hospital Campus Guide is available to download on the Apple App Store here and from Google Play Store here.