Stockport NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with CardMedic across the organisation, enabling its 6,300-strong workforce to communicate more clearly and confidently with patients who face language or communication barriers. 

CardMedic is a digital healthcare communication platform that allows staff and patients to communicate safely and effectively irrespective of language barriers, cognitive impairment or literacy.

The platform provides instant access to live interpreters in 200+ languages via Language Line, alongside thousands of clinically validated scripts in multiple languages and formats, including British Sign Language (BSL), Easy Read, and Read Aloud. It also supports health literacy for same language patients by explaining information in plain language, clearly and succinctly. 

The trust provides acute and community health services to a population of around 300,000 people across Stockport, as well as hospital services to peope in the High Peak and East Cheshire.  With a diverse community, reliance on face-to-face interpreting has led to rapidly increasing annual costs, and communication barriers have increasingly impacted patient experience and safety.  

Introducing CardMedic will help address these pressures by providing staff with a single point of access to a suite of clinically designed communication support tools. The cost-effective, vendor-agnostic platform connects staff to the Trust’s existing language service providers via its Call an Interpreter feature, accessible on any device and any location. Streamlined access will reduce use of disparate and ad hoc solutions, empowering staff to deliver more efficient and equitable care. 

This groundbreaking collaboration will see CardMedic deployed across 455 SPARK Fusion® patient bedside devices on 20 wards at the Trust’s Stepping Hill Hospital. This integration brings universal communication support directly to the bedside, giving patients and clinicians greater access, privacy, speed, and confidence in every interaction. 

The Trust has taken a “big bang” approach to launching CardMedic, introducing it across all its acute and community settings. From day one, it has been available in all inpatient areas to maximise reach and equity of access. Key areas of engagement include emergency, maternity, and acute medical units, supported by digital nurses, midwives, and clinical champions across the organisation.  The rollout also extends to community staff, including community midwives, school nurses, allied healthcare professionals, Macmillan nurses and district nurses.  

“CardMedic enables equality across our services” 

Pam Fearns, Chief Nursing Information Officer at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, led the project’s implementation. “CardMedic will enable patients to voice their needs where previously they may have struggled to communicate them,” she said. “All conversations — such as asking whether someone wants a cup of tea, explaining a procedure, or offering reassurance — play a vital role in ensuring inclusivity. CardMedic enables equality across our services.” 

The launch is backed by an extensive communications campaign using the slogan ‘the silent era is over’. This term was coined by Karen Lawrence in the Digital Skills Team following discussions with the Digital Nursing Team about giving a voice to the “silent patient”. This gave her the idea of silent movies in black and white. Now the introduction of CardMedic is bringing colour back to these patients as they are no longer silenced. 

The rollout reflects the Trust’s commitment to its core CARE values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence. It also aligns with regional efforts to reduce inequalities and national priorities such as the Patient safety healthcare inequalities reduction framework, the Accessible Information Standard, and the Core20PLUS5 Health Inequalities Programme. 

The Trust’s passion for equitable care is evident throughout the partnership.  The top five non-English languages spoken in the local area are Farsi, Urdu, Arabic, Kurdish Sorani, and Cantonese. To support the Trust’s community, CardMedic is adding Kurdish Sorani to its platform for the first time. 

Empowering equity through innovation 

Dr Rachael Grimaldi, CEO and Co-Founder of CardMedic, said: “Stockport NHS Foundation Trust has demonstrated what equitable care in action looks like. No patient will be left without a voice in their care. By embedding CardMedic across wards and bedside devices, enabled through our partnership with SPARK TSL, they’re enabling communication that is instant, safe, and scalable.  

“The partnership won’t just improve care for patients who face a language barrier. With CardMedic’s Easy Read and Read Aloud formats, it also helps support improved health literacy when language isn’t the main issue.” 

Jane Stephenson, CEO at SPARK TSL, added: “This pioneering project demonstrates how technology can strengthen patient-centred care. We’re proud to be working with Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and CardMedic on embedding inclusive communication support in our SPARK Fusion® bedside devices. Together, we’re making healthcare more accessible for all.” 

As part of its interpreting provision and digital patient experience strategy, the Trust is collaborating with CardMedic to efficiently provide more patients with access to language support, helping to improve DNA (Did Not Attend) rates, improve understanding and outcomes, and ease pressure on staff.