After more than two decades as a GP, Dr Gerry Morrow ended up playing a leading role providing up-to-date information on Covid-19 and its impact on the vulnerable to colleagues in primary care around the country.
Dr Morrow was a GP in Allendale until 2012, before becoming medical director at technology firm Agilio - which was then known as Clarity Infomatics. Passionate about the impact technology can have on primary care, he has - in that capacity - been responsible for overseeing a vital database of the latest health knowledge.
Agilio has responsibility for vital resources for GPs known as clinical knowledge summaries which are funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). These give those working in primary care the most up-to-date information about medical conditions, treatments and medications and are constantly reviewed by experts.
Unsurprisingly, during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, this was essential - and Dr Morrow told ChronicleLive about the job and how he had experienced the rapidly-evolving coronavirus crisis. He said: " After working as a GP in Worcestershire, I moved to Allendale where I worked as a GP. Then, having been a full-time GP for 20 years, I decided I wanted to change tack. I thought it was a good idea to move on while people were still saying nice things about me!
At the time I joined, the firm was called Clarity Infomatics. The role was in two parts: Some of it was what is called quality improvement work, while the other part of the job is looking after what are called clinical knowledge summaries. They asked us to create and update 370 topics.
"What that means is distilling what is needed in primary care. About 22 or 23 years ago, this didn't exist. There wasn't a single source of guidance for primary care. You could buy textbooks, access journals, but if for example you had questions about what the best drug to treat."
As for Covid, he said the obvious ramifications for other illnesses and the prescriptions people were getting made getting the up-to-date info right vital.
Dr Morrow said: "It wasn't just about Covid, it was also what was the impact on people taking medications. What would it mean for people taking statins or who were on immune modulating drugs? There was a concern about how they would be more at risk. We were updating things at times on a daily basis. We were getting rapid updates from NICE and making sure that all fed through."
Dr Morrow is also a non-executive director at North East Ambulance Service, where he leads the technology committee. Incorporating life-saving innovation into healthcare is something he is passionate about.
"Working at Agilio, my day job is essentially looking at technology and the applications of that to primary care. My colleagues are involved in working on ways that can benefit primary care," he said. According to Dr Morrow, using digital tools to streamline "back office" functions in general practice are one way technology can have huge time-saving benefits.
He said that he expected initial uses of AI to be more around timesaving and using technology to automate some of the rote jobs that occupy hours for GPs - something he would welcome, especially given the pressures on general practice.
Dr Morrow added: "Back when I started, if you had asked how do you run a practice, the answer was it is spreadsheets and lever arch files. Now greater digitisation means we are better able to respond to things like Covid and the huge changes in the medical landscape.
"There's lots of talk about AI and ChatGPT. It's coming after all of our jobs!"
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