Storm ID launches digital diagnostics pathway to accelerate severe asthma care
Digital transformation specialist Storm ID today announced the launch of Storm Diagnostics pathway, a Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) that digitises and accelerates the diagnosis and treatment pathway for patients with severe asthma.
The new service is being deployed within the NHS Humber Health Partnership to underpin its severe asthma pathway. By streamlining referrals from district general hospitals and automating key clinical steps, the platform speeds up patient access to high-cost biologic therapies – reducing delays and improving outcomes.
Transforming the severe asthma pathway
Currently, patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma face a lengthy and complex journey. Referral to a specialist Severe Asthma Centre (SAC) for assessment by a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) often involves significant cross organisational data sharing challenges, which can create bottlenecks that delay access to guideline-directed care.
Storm Diagnostics addresses this challenge by digitising the entire clinical workflow. The platform connects referring sites, including York and Scarborough NHS Foundation Trust and Harrogate & District NHS Foundation Trust, with the central specialist hub. It enables secure, efficient virtual vetting of cases, automates data collection and optimises the referral to treatment decision process by the MDT. This reduces the need for unnecessary face-to-face appointments and duplicate tests, helping clinicians make faster, better-informed decisions.
Key benefits
- Faster treatment decisions – reducing time to access biologics
- Improved data sharing – secure, real-time collaboration across multiple trusts
- Reduced patient burden – fewer unnecessary appointments and repeat investigations
- Enhanced governance – full pathway visibility for both referencing clinicians and MDT hubs
This service enables a 'hub and spoke' model for severe asthma which is designed to improve efficiency and address data interoperability and care coordination challenges between care settings.
"Digital tools are essential to creating a more efficient and responsive NHS" said Paul McGinness, from Storm ID. "The report last year from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Diagnostics highlighted the lack of digital tools to help streamline diagnostic pathways, improve efficiency and address data interoperability and care coordination challenges between care settings. This service enables a 'hub and spoke' model for severe asthma which is designed to address these challenges".
The platform’s highly flexible, permissions-based system allows clinicians at referring hospitals to track their cases, while the central MDT hub maintains a complete overview, ensuring robust clinical governance.
While each clinical pathway is different, historical studies of similar digital diagnostic tools in cardiovascular disease management have demonstrated the potential to reduce time to treatment by as much as 75%1.
Mike Crooks, Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Clinical Lead for Humber and North Yorkshire Respiratory Network added, "Getting patients with severe asthma onto the right treatment, like biologics, as quickly as possible is a key priority. The traditional pathway has inherent delays, and we were actively seeking a solution to streamline our processes. This solution provides our multi-disciplinary team with the tools we need to manage referrals more efficiently, make faster decisions, and ultimately improve outcomes for our patients across the region."
This solution provides our multi-disciplinary team with the tools we need to manage referrals more efficiently, make faster decisions, and ultimately improve outcomes for our patients across the region.
Secure and scalable
Storm Diagnostics is delivered as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, hosted on Storm ID’s controlled Microsoft Azure tenancy, ensuring security, compliance and scalability. The initial research for the pathway was supported by funding from AstraZeneca.
About Storm ID
Storm ID is a leading digital transformation specialist working with public and private sector organisations to improve services, streamline workflows and deliver better outcomes through data-driven digital platforms. The Storm Diagnostics tool supports pathways across a wide range of clinical conditions and can be deployed for use across community diagnostics centres, GP practices and hospital settings.
The company is ISO 13485 accredited, demonstrating its commitment to delivering safe and effective software as a medical device. Storm ID also holds ISO 27001 (information security management) and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications, ensuring robust data protection and compliance with NHS and regulatory standards.
1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.01.24316568v1.full