With the formation of Integrated Care Systems, the imperative for clear, consistent patient communication has never been greater. Patients need to know who they are seeing, where, when, and how - what is happening with their data, where they sit on their care pathway, and, crucially, how to engage with their clinical team in a way that is simple and easy to navigate. Across an ICS, where care is increasingly delivered across multiple organisations, settings, and teams, achieving this consistently is a genuine challenge.
Technology is the enabler. When implemented well, it increases access, offers patients more choice, and speeds up processes - while delivering equally significant benefits for clinicians and administrators. Reduced did-not-attend rates, the ability to fill last-minute cancellation gaps, and the elimination of manual communication processes are all achievable outcomes with the right digital infrastructure. OX.DH's platform, built directly on top of Microsoft Teams, is designed to deliver exactly these outcomes at ICS scale.
Why Familiarity Matters: Building on Microsoft Teams
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Microsoft Teams has become embedded in the daily working lives of NHS staff across the country. OX.DH's virtual consultation capabilities are built as Teams plug-ins, which means clinicians connect with their patients from within the native Teams environment they already use - with no additional login, no separate application, and no new interface to learn.
For patients, the experience is equally frictionless. They can access their consultation from any device, through a browser, without downloading the Teams app or any other application. There is no registration process, no new account to create, and no technical barrier between the patient and their clinical team.
This familiarity is not incidental - it is the primary driver of adoption. When clinical staff describe OX.DH's solution as intuitive, when patients describe it as simple, and when ICT leads find themselves live within an hour of installation, it is because the product is built on infrastructure that everyone already understands.
What OX.DH Closes That Native Teams Cannot
Microsoft Teams is a powerful foundation - but it was not designed as a clinical tool. Several capabilities critical to safe, effective virtual healthcare are absent from native Teams and must be added through a purpose-built clinical layer. OX.DH provides exactly this. Key additions include:
- Patient verification - patients are authenticated at the point of joining using personal identifiers such as date of birth or appointment ID, preventing unauthorised access to consultations
- Structured patient engagement workflows - automated appointment confirmations, reminders, follow-up messages, and PROMs surveys sent via SMS and email, without manual staff intervention
- EPR integration - connecting into existing electronic patient records via HL7, FHIR, and other standard formats, giving clinicians a unified view of appointments across multiple systems
- Configurable clinical workflows - tailored to the specific needs of different care settings, specialties, and pathways within the ICS
- Real-time analytics - KPI dashboards tracking DNA rates, appointment volumes, start times, and patient satisfaction, enabling data-driven service improvement
- Patient-initiated follow-up - allowing patients to self-book follow-up appointments based on published clinical availability
The platform is also built to be scalable across an ICS - offering a consistent approach to virtual care delivery that can be adopted across different organisations within the system, rather than each trust or practice procuring and managing separate tools.
Proven Results: Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
The experience of Richard Billam, deputy director of ICT at Barnsley Hospital NHS Trust, illustrates how quickly OX.DH's platform can be deployed and adopted. During a product demonstration, Richard accessed the national Microsoft tenant, added OX.DH to their Teams account, and within one hour had the solution working with pre-configured settings - creating an appointment, sending it via SMS and email to a test recipient, and testing it across multiple devices. When the solution was demonstrated to clinicians at the trust, their reaction was unambiguous: "Wow, is that it? They are impressed at how simple it really is."
For patients, the system was described as "really intuitive" - a standard that OX.DH holds as non-negotiable. Putting the patient at the heart of the digital experience means supporting their choice and flexibility, and giving them control over their own data and their own care journey wherever possible.
OX.DH and the NHS Technology Innovation Framework
OX.DH is part of the NHS Technology Innovation Framework, which is actively driving integration across the NHS ecosystem - covering everything from e-referrals and prescribing to summary care records and GP-to-GP data sharing. As an ICS considers its technology landscape, OX.DH's position on this framework means it can integrate with the NHS's broader digital infrastructure as a recognised, approved partner - rather than as an external system that sits outside the NHS ecosystem.
The national Microsoft tenant also provides a significant strategic advantage for ICSs. With the NHS's ongoing investment in its Microsoft partnership, choosing OX.DH means maximising the value of that commitment rather than working around it. As the national tenant continues to evolve - with new capabilities, enhanced security features, and expanded integrations - OX.DH's platform evolves with it.
Related Resources
- OX. Waiting Room: Product Overview
- Webinar: Virtual Consultation Best Practices and User Adoption
- Connecting Patients, Clinicians and Data with OX.DH Technologies
- Case Study: Barnsley Hospital
- 5 Ways Remote Appointments Improve Patient Satisfaction
Improve Patient Engagement Across Your ICS
If your ICS is exploring how to deliver consistent, scalable virtual care and patient communication across multiple organisations, book a demo or contact our team. NHS organisations can also access a free one-month trial of OX.Waiting Room via the Microsoft national tenant App Source.
About the Author
John Kosobucki is CEO and Founder of OX.DH (Oxford Digital Health). Learn more about OX.DH's founders.