A doctor from the South West Acute Hospital has picked up a prestigious award after being named as a 'Healthcare Hero' at the British Heart Foundation's Heart Hero Awards.
Dr Susan Connolly, a Consultant Cardiologist in the Western Trust, was awarded the accolade for her role in setting up and leading the 'Our Hearts Our Minds' programme for cardiovascular health service.
While the ceremony was held in London, due to Covid-19 restrictions the event was broadcast live via YouTube, with Dr Connolly and friends and family gathering to watch the event.
Located at the SWAH in Enniskillen, the programme is delivered by a nurse-led team and included dieticians, physiotherapists and psychologists.
'Our Hearts Our Minds' is an innovative programme which aims to help patients and their families to reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke by utilising remote and interactive technology.
“I am so honoured and humbled to receive the award from the British Heart Foundation UK for work I have done on the Our Hearts Our Minds programme during the pandemic," Dr Connolly said.
“When the first Covid wave started we had to suspend a lot of our face to face services and we realised very quickly that we had to find a new way of working to help continue to provide the programme for patients, so we moved it to a fully virtual programme in just six weeks.
“We offered patients assessments via video or telephone; we started group education sessions via video; we filmed educational talks and put them on the Trust’s YouTube channel.
"Importantly we also offered our patients a wearable “Fitbit” device and invited them to synchronise to a dashboard so we could see their activity in real time.
“This meant we could push through notifications to them directly through the app to motivate them and help them adhere to our exercise recommendations."
Dr Connolly added it was a credit to her team at SWAH who were able to adapt to changing circumstances in the pandemic very quickly.
“I want to thank my amazing team for the way they were able to adapt to a new way of working very quickly, which they did with real enthusiasm because they are committed to delivering the best care for our patients," she said.
“I would also like to thank the Western Trust for all the support from senior management in helping us deliver the programme and for the funding from the Department of Health which has allowed us to deliver the programme in the first place.”
