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| News in Brief | UKeHA Update | ||||||
| Effective ICRS Implementation The UKeHA is supporting the conference, 'Effective ICRS Implementation', which takes place on 27 & 28 January 2004, in London and focuses on communication and collaboration between IT Managers, new IT suppliers, patients and other parties once the LSP decisions have been made. As such, it will be the key event for all ICRS stakeholders who wish to arm themselves with appropriate knowledge and tools for the implementation phases. The emphasis is on learning and moving forward. It is being aligned as closely as possible to the National Programme's emerging communications strategy, in order that the event provides a useful ancillary service. All UKeHA members will receive a 20% discount (on top of the existing 50% for all NHS staff). Visit the website www.eyeforhealthcare.com for details and registration. Chairman’s Circle Update Eleven Circle members met on 28 November 2003 at Lovells in London. The meeting, chaired by Nicholas Macfarlane, discussed topical ethical and legal eHealth issues. The next meeting is being arranged for the end of February 2004. Forthcoming UK Events: 23 January 2004 Meeting of the Telemedicine & eHealth Forum, in association with Avon Somerset and Wiltshire Cancer Network: Health-modernising cancer services - A workshop for the South West, Taunton Racecourse, Taunton. For further information contact Sarah Burgess at the Royal Society of Medicine on 0207 290 3943 or email telemed@rsm.ac.uk. Alternatively, visit www.rsm.ac.uk/ telemedicine. 10-11 February 2004 International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) Open Source Working Group – UK think-tank meeting, Winchester. For further information, visit www.chirad.info/ opensteps/marwell01.htm or email opensteps@chirad.info. 16-17 March 2004 HEAT 2004: The Home and Electronic Assistive Technology, King’s Manor, University of York. For further information visit www-users.york.ac.uk/ ~am1/HEAT.html. Alternatively, contact Guy Dewsbury at g.dewsbury@lancaster. ac.uk or Gordon Baxter at g.Baxter@psych. york.ac.uk.   |
Chairman announced for UKeHA SME group
The UK eHealth Association is delighted to announce that Mark Simon, the Chief Executive for ComMedica, has been chosen to chair the Special Interest Group for SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises). The group was formed to allow SMEs, who are potential providers of IT systems and services to the UK health industry, to voice their views and issues to the National Programme for IT in the NHS. In this capacity, Mark Simon has already had the opportunity to put comments from the Group directly to NHS IT Director General Richard Granger. “The SME community is a very important one, and it’s vital that their views get through,” says Dr Ricky Richardson, Chairman of the UKeHA. “ComMedica is a long-standing member of the Association, and very much a classic SME. Mark was the obvious choice for this important role, because he is such an articulate and intelligent advocate of the role of SMEs in the UK eHealth sector.” Early meetings of the Special Interest Group for SMEs have drawn an attendance of around 60 delegates, with the new IT procurement structure for the NHS naturally close to the top of the agenda. Mark Simon says it was an easy decision to take the position when it was offered. “At such an important time for eHealth in the UK, I was delighted and honoured to be asked to chair the SME group. It gives the SME community a means by which to talk directly with the decision-making powers and help companies, like ComMedica, to exploit the opportunity that has arisen from the Government’s determination to transform healthcare using IT. My aim is to achieve the best deal for the eHealth SME companies as a whole.” For further information, email Mike McCurry at treasurer@ukeha.org.uk. The eHealth Alliance UK update As reported in Med-e-Tel’s (formerly known as the Telemedicine and Telecare International Trade Fair) recent newsletter, the eHealth Alliance UK has been formed to co-ordinate promotion of the development, implementation and maintenance of eHealth applications within the NHS and other UK health and social care organisations. The organisations currently involved include: the British Computing Society (BCS); the Confederation of eHealth Websites (CeW); the International eHealth Association (IeHA); the e-Health Innovation Professionals Group of the Institute of Health Management (IHM), the Association of ICT Professionals in Health and Social Care (ASSIST) and the BCS Health Informatics Committee (BCS HIC); the Royal Society of Medicine's eHealth and Telemedicine Forum; and the UK eHealth Association (UKeHA). The NHS Confederation is currently involved as an observer. The eHealth Alliance UK has been established to enable all of the organisations with an interest in this area to coordinate their activities and to speak with one voice on important and emerging issues for eHealth. In particular, the eHealth Alliance UK expects to act as a single point of contact for those with an interest in obtaining information and accessing expertise within the area of eHealth. In addition to regular meetings, the eHealth Alliance UK member organisations intend to make this possible through the use of a range of support facilities, including a list server, linked websites, coordinated meetings, conferences and symposia, and the production of an eHealth Alliance UK Newsletter. The eHealth Alliance UK will be pleased to work with those with a responsibility for the development and implementation of eHealth applications across the health and social care sector, and is particularly interested in facilitating the promotion of appropriate implementation of such systems. For further information, email Mike McCurry at treasurer@ukeha.org.uk. |
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| News in Brief | Members News | ||||||
Tunstall to host free conference Tunstall is to host a free one day conference in London on 25 February, 2004, illustrating how funding can contribute towards achieving partnership working between the health, housing and social sectors, to successfully enable independent living for older and vulnerable members of society. Representatives from leading Housing Associations, Local Authority housing departments, Social Services departments and NHS Trusts will be offering their views on how funding streams are created, pooling resources, shared targets, making the most of the funding available and priorities in allocating funding. Speakers will include Melinda Phillips, Chief Executive for Housing 21, Linda Reed, Director of Primary Care and Community Services at North Surrey PCT and John Ransford, Director of Education and Social Policy for the Local Government Association. The conference will take place at the Royal College of Surgeons from 9.30am to 3.45pm. For further information, or for a booking form, please contact Tunstall on 01977 660 201. Father Christmas makes virtual visit to hospital  Polycom Inc., a major provider of solutions to the health sector and the world’s leader in video and voice conferencing, conference bridges and integrated web collaboration solutions, has linked the Children’s Ward at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil to Father Christmas in Lapland. Jane Hutt, Health & Social Services Minister for the Welsh Assembly joined the children as they told Father Christmas what they wanted for Christmas. Polycom’s MedLink™ interactive telemedicine workstation and the Welsh Health Video Service were used to bring the children and Father Christmas together. RCN call for exhibitors The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Information in Nursing Forum, in collaboration with the eHealth Nurses Network and BMIS (British Medical Information Society), has called for companies to exhibit at their forthcoming conference which is to be held at RCN London on 12 February, 2004. The key theme is “IT support for multi-professional care pathways: Is there a strategy?”, and companies are being given the opportunity to showcase their care pathway products and associated decision support options. For further information, please email Bernice Baker at 106057.1136@ compuserve.com or call 01403 269 647. Forthcoming UK Events 27-28 January 2004 Effective Integrated Care Records Service (ICRS) Implementation: Moving Forward into 2004, London. For further information, email psimms@firstconf.com or call 0207 375 194. 20 May 2004 The Association for ICT Professionals in Health & Social Care (ASSIST) Annual Conference, Aston University, Birmingham. Visit www.assist.org.uk.  |
BT Wins NHS Care Records Service Contract A 10 year contract, worth a total of £620 million, has been awarded to BT to set up and run the national NHS Care Records Service. The company has also won the contract to supply the systems to access the service, as well as provide IT support at a local level in the London region. The NHS Care Records Service (formerly referred to as Integrated Care Records Service) will provide all 50 million NHS patients with an individual electronic NHS Care Record, which will detail key treatments and care within either the health service or social care. The service will connect more than 30,000 GPs and 270 acute, community and mental health NHS trusts in a single, secure national system. Patient records will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to ensure that vital information about an individual's health and care history can be available instantly to health professionals who have authorised access. The NHS Care Records Service will combine a portfolio of clinical tools, systems and services to underpin records and the electronic transfer of related data and information. For further information, visit http://www.doh.gov.uk/ ipu/programme/nhscrs_pressrelease.pdf.  Sysmed Solutions – pathology’s chosen IT solutions providerSysmed Solutions’ (the leading UK supplier of IT solutions delivering improved quality and productivity within the clinical laboratory) Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) has been selected for implementation in five NHS Trusts, including Barts & The Royal London Hospital NHS Trust and Hinchingbrooke Healthcare NHS Trust. Sysmed’s WinPath LIMS is, for example, being used at Whitfield Street Laboratory Ltd, a new company set up between University College London Hospitals NHS Trust (UCLH) and The Doctors Laboratory Ltd (TDL) to run what will be the UK’s largest, high volume, automated pathology laboratory. The new, central-London based, automated laboratory will manage the bulk of the combined chemistry and haematology workload for both organisations, processing over 50,000 tests per day. Adopting the latest in state-of-the-art analytical and robotic technologies, together with sophisticated workflow design, the new laboratory aims to set new standards in process efficiency, ensuring more effective patient diagnosis and treatment.  South Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust selects TelemarqueSouth Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust has signed a contract with United Telemedicine Ltd for the implementation and ongoing support of its Telemarque telemedicine software at twelve hospitals in the Manchester area. Telemarque is a multimedia, multi-speciality telemedicine solution, allowing the capture of digital images and video and audio clips alongside clinical data and enabling secure electronic referral to remote specialists for diagnosis and feedback. The product is already configured to meet the needs of Dermatology and Burns specialities, and is currently installed in a number of NHS Trusts throughout the UK, including East Kent, Nottingham and Merseyside. The agreement with South Manchester will see its development into plastic surgery and related areas such as trauma, wound and dressing management. United Telemedicine will develop the software in close co-operation with the Burns and Plastic Surgery Department at Wythenshawe Hospital and will also provide installation, training and support services. Scheduled for completion by March 2004, the solution will allow patients across the region to have consistent and equitable access to the specialist facility, enabling cases to be seen quicker by the appropriate person and to, ultimately, reduce delays in the system. For further information contact Richard Shaw at United Telemedicine Limited on 01422 825606 or email: dick.shaw@telemarque.co.uk Top Marks for NHS Direct  NHS Direct provides good quality advice and reassurance and is appreciated by the people who use it, according to the first independent national report on the service. The report by the health watchdog, the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), indicates that the service is well regarded by the public. Staff are polite, professional and reassuring and demand for the service is increasing. However, it also highlights the need to ensure call centres are meeting appropriate targets for performance. The report is the first assessment of the effectiveness of NHS Direct, which is a 24 hour nurse-led telephone helpline across England and Wales. The assessment is based on CHI’s clinical governance reviews, which assess the systems in place for delivering high quality patient care. NHS Direct now handles half a million telephone calls and half a million internet enquiries a month across England and Wales. The majority of calls are outside the working hours of GP surgeries and a quarter relate to children under five. For further information about the CHI’s report, visit www.chi.nhs.uk/eng/news/2003/nov/03.shtml. |
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| News in Brief | NHS IT News | ||||||
| Top Award for NHSIA A national scheme to equip all NHS staff with basic IT skills has been voted Online Learning Solution of the Year. The NHS Information Authority’s European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) scheme for NHS staff was voted best on-line learning solution at the recent World Learning Conference & Exhibition (WOLCE), receiving high praise from the judges. Recognised as one of the premier awards in the UK training industry, the WOLCE Awards are designed to identify and reward exceptional individuals and organisations whose outstanding achievements have significantly advanced workplace productivity and performance. The ECDL offers NHS staff training in basic IT skills and an internationally recognised qualification. The scheme is managed for the Information Authority by a consortium led by Spring IT Training who provide a national tracking and monitoring service for ECDL registrations and access to the learning and testing materials. Since the ECDL service was launched in March 2003, over 40,000 people have registered for IT training. For further information, visit www.nhsia.nhs.uk/def/ pages/pr/24112003.asp Military Project to Fall into Line with NHS National IT Programme The Ministry of Defence is set to benefit from a new IT project along the lines of the NHS IT Programme. Each member of the 200,000 military personnel will have an electronic health record created for them. The project is very much in line with the £2.3 billion NHS IT Programme and the MOD IT project must be able to exchange information with the NHS. The MOD IT project – the Defence Medical Information Capability Programme (DMICP), is being produced in conjunction with the Defence Information Infrastructure project, which is currently under development. The result will be that military personnel health records will be accessible wherever needed. The system is due to be up and running by December 2005. The patient’s number simply needs to be typed into the system by the authorised personnel and their records will be called up from a central database. It also allows the MOD to look at the overall health of forces personnel and raise levels of fitness and general wellbeing if necessary. The information will be also used for management purposes. Source: NHS Health Informatics Community http://www.informatics. nhs.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=376&d =11&h=24&f=23& dateformat=%o-%B-%Y Events 18 February 2004 Clinical Information Conference, Novotel London West, Hammersmith, London. For further information visit www.nhsia.nhs.uk/ improvingperformance. 11 March 2004 Health Informatics – the present and the future, Royal College of Physicians, London. For further information email conferences@ rcplondon.ac.uk |
Getting the Message
The national roll-out of a major new messaging service for the NHS has now been completed successfully. Since June almost 10,000 NHS organisations that use computer application-to-application messaging have moved over to the new Data Transfer Service (DTS). This replaces the old NHS specific X.400 service which no longer meets Government network communication standards. Application-to-application messaging, known as electronic data interchange (EDI), allows GP practices and Primary Care Trusts to safely transfer a variety of messages, including patient registration details, GP payment claims, clearing service data and preventative screening information. The new service provides a centralised data transfer solution that helps to reduce messaging transfer costs and removes the need for NHS organisations to have their own end-site messaging servers to handle incoming encrypted data. For further information, visit NHS Health Informatics Community at http://www.informatics.nhs.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=380&d=11&h=24&f=46&dateformat=%25o-%25b-%25Y National Patient Safety Reporting Goes Live The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) is planning to roll out its National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) across the NHS during 2004. NHS staff anywhere in England and Wales will be able to report patient safety incidents, which they are involved in or witness. Information provided to the NPSA will be stored anonymously, with no recording of patient or staff names, and will be analysed to identify national patterns and patient safety priorities, as well as to develop practical solutions. The NRLS, developed with the help of staff from 39 NHS organisations, has been designed to complement local reporting arrangements so that the majority of NHS organisations can enter data onto their own system and this can then be automatically sent to the NPSA, where information relating to individuals (staff or patients) will be removed. An electronic web-based reporting form has also been developed so that organisations without a local system can also report incidents. The final version of the dataset, which has been adapted for different care settings, is available from the NPSA website - http://www.npsa.nhs.uk. For further information, visit the NHS Health Informatics Community at http://www.informatics.nhs.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=419&d=11&h=24&f=46&dateformat=%25o-%25b-%25Y  Preparing Children for Hospitals Admission to hospital is always a stressful experience, even for well-informed and well-prepared adults. For children and adolescents, a hospital stay can be an even more daunting experience. Preparation can do much to relieve anxiety and, as a result, a new website has been set up to give children the information they need about their health and what to expect whilst in hospital. Children First is an international health website specifically for children and young people aged three to 18 years. It has been developed by Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in partnership with hospitals across the NHS, as well as a number of charities and hospitals across the world. The website has already won a number of awards, and is endorsed by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Office. More than 1,500 children of all ages were involved in developing Children First, to ensure both the design and content met their needs. Children also contribute features and personal experiences, whilst the involvement of health professionals ensures that children receive quality health advice and information. For further information, visit the NHS Health Informatics Community at www.informatics.nhs.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=384&d=11&h=24&f=46&dateformat=%25o-%25b-%25Y or www.childrenfirst.nhs.uk |
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| News in Brief | Global Roundup | ||||||
| CARS 2004 CARS (Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery) 2004 is the premier annual international meeting of experts on new developments in computer assisted medical tools and applications, and is to be held 23-26 June 2004 in Chicago, USA. A call for papers and participation has been made for the conference, which is sponsored by the International Society for Computer Aided Surgery and further details about the event can be found on the website. The conference concentrates on advances in medical imaging, healthcare networking, computer assisted diagnosis and therapy, surgical robotics and instrumentation, and related imaging-based technologies. CARS now includes the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and access management, with collaboration between all healthcare parties, including the patient. For further information visit www.cars-int.de/ or email Heinz Lemke at hulemke@cars-int.de. Telemedicine & eHealth Directory The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Med-e-Tel are preparing the second edition of the Telemedicine & eHealth Directory 2004, which will incorporate an updated list of manufacturers and suppliers of telemedicine, telecare and eHealth related products, services and projects. The directory provides a one-stop shopping list for organisations, authorities and institutions who are looking to implement new or expand existing telemedicine projects or services. To be included in the directory, contact info@medetel.lu for more details and a registration form or visit www.medetel.lu or www.itu.int. Key worldwide events include: 12-13 February 2004 eHealth: Current Status and Future Trends, Columbia, Missouri, USA. Visit http://www.hmi.missouri. edu/eHealth/ for further information. 21-23 April 2004 Tel-e-Med: the international trade event for eHealth, telemedicine and health IT, Luxembourg. For further information, email info@medetel.lu 12-14 May 2004 9th European Forum on Quality Improvement in Healthcare, Copenhagen, Denmark. For further information, visit www.quality.bmjpg.com. 12-16 June 2004 All Africa Telemedicine and TeleHealth Conference: Envisioning Health Care and Technology Together, Yaounde, Cameroon. For further information, contact Raymond Micah at micah1731@rogers.com. 31 July – 5 August 2004 MEDICON 2004, Naples, Italy. For further information, visit www.medicon2004. unina.it.
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Satellite-driven broadband for South Africa
 Multimedia provider Sentech has launched a pilot telemedicine project in South Africa aimed at using satellite-driven broadband to leverage big city medical expertise for underprivileged rural areas. The pilot project has been tested successfully over the past three months and has enabled the instant transmission of X-ray images from the Frontier Hospital in Queenstown, Eastern Cape, to radiologists at the Clinix Health Group’s Dobsonville Clinic outside Johannesburg. The transmission was made possible by the launch of VSTAR, Sentech’s satellite based bi-directional broadband service, which creates an always-on environment for the satellite transmission of images and information. Clarity was assured by high-resolution, high-speed messaging at 512 kilobits per second. Source: allAfrica.com, November 14 2003, via the Telemedicine Information Exchange What’s New (http://tie.telemed.org/news/).New Strategies for ISfT The recently relaunched ISfT (International Society for Telemedicine) is in the process of establishing global links and communicating with both national and international organisations involved in the development, research and funding of telemedicine activities, in order to advance and promote the global cause of telemedicine and eHealth. Through some of its national members, including the UK eHealth Association and Polish Telemedicine Society, ISfT is also assisting the creation of a Hungarian Telemedicine Association, whose first general meeting is planned for January 2004. With the increasing number of national telemedicine initiatives and associations worldwide, ISfT is set to work with such institutions to play an active role in the telemedicine industry. For more information about ISfT and about how to become a member, email Prof. Dr. Michael Nerlich (President) at Michael.nerlich@klinik.uni-regensburg.de or Frank Lievens (Treasurer) at telemedicine@skynet.be. A new ISfT website will be operational soon. Collaborative initiative helps cancer researchers A new initiative to facilitate the development and use of better cancer treatments will use modern information technologies. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has agreed to work with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to develop clinical trial management software that will make it easier for cancer research groups and the FDA to work collaboratively. As a first step, NCI and FDA will work together to build tools that facilitate electronic interactions. The new initiative will link cancer researchers around the US electronically to the FDA, thereby reducing the time it takes for promising new drugs to be reviewed for testing in clinical trials. The electronic submission of data will allow patients to benefit from earlier access to clinical trials as a result of shorter FDA processing time of applications. For more information, visit Federal Telemedicine News at http://www.cbloch.com Eyeing up the PC  Revolutionary new technology from Spain, designed to enable severely disabled people to control a computer using just eye movement, could soon be available in the UK. The Iriscom, which is already in use in Portugal and in a number of Spanish speaking countries, emulates the movement of a PC mouse and moves the mouse pointer by tracking a person’s iris movement. Mouse clicks are performed by blinking, whilst users can also input text with an on-screen keyboard. The Iriscom, which consists of a camera placed on the computer and focused on the user’s eye, can be used by anyone who has control of one eye, including people wearing glasses or contact lenses. The system, which took over a year to develop and costs 6,000 euros (£4,200) was designed to meet the needs of people with amiotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative condition that eventually results in people only being able to move their eyes. Each system is tailored to suit each individual user and, once installed, is very simple to use. Source: BBC News – Technology via NHS Health Informatics Community at http://www.informatics.nhs.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=417&d=11&h=24&f=46&dateformat=%25o-%25b-%25Y |
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| Industry Viewpoint | |||||||
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BT wins NHS Care Records Service Contract 
Eyeing up the PC
Industry Viewpoint 
Mark Simon, Chief Executive for ComMedica and Chairman of the UKeHA's Special Interest Group for SMEs, comments on the need for small to medium sized companies to be recognised within the NHS Procurement system