INTRODUCTION
The UKTA has reached a new milestone in its development with the invitation
to address the Health Select Committee at the House of Commons - which took
place on 26th April.
Your executive is now involved in advising several key government
bodies such as NHS Direct and the NHS Executive. This means that the UKTA
is at the centre of health strategy decision making in the UK which should
bring benefits to all our members.
We are also strengthening and formalising our relationships
with international organisations such as EHTEL – The European Health
Telematics Association, the ATA – The American Telemedicine Association,
IsfT – The International Society for Telemedicine and IeHA – the
International eHealth Association. Hopefully, over this coming year, these
strategic moves will open new opportunities for our members and enable us
all to learn from eHealth experience in other counties and also to share our
own.
We are contemplating supporting a documentary film on eHealth
to be made on national television in this country and discussions with film
producers are ongoing at this time. We are also exploring changing our name
to embrace the term eHealth – which is becoming an important generic
term which includes Telemedicine – but also touches on the eDissemination
of Healthcare Professional Education, the provision of Public Health Information
and the prospective accumulation of personalised healthcare event recording
resulting in a LifeTime Health Plan.
I feel also that whereas the UKTA has started to effect changes
in thinking (and thus support of telemedicine practices, services and solutions)
in the medical clinical area and the political arena (Health Select Committee
at the House of Commons), we should now focus out attention on our nursing
colleagues and other members of the professional healthcare team.
We should also start to influence undergraduate teaching curricula
in medical and nursing schools which, in my view, are reprehensibly slow in
preparing students to emerge suitably equipped to practice in an IT enabled
healthcare environment.
All in all, we have an exciting year ahead of us and I look forward to interacting
with all of you as we move towards the first annual conference – to be
held jointly with the National Assembly of Wales in late May/early June 2002.
Dr Ricky J Richardson
Chairman
NEW MEMBERS
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
MEMBERS MEETINGS
Below is advance notice of members meetings for the remainder
of 2001. The programme and directions to the venue will be circulated prior
to each event
6 July Ortivus, Southampton
28 September Adastral Park, BT Innovation Centre, Martlesham,
Suffolk
7 November Joint hosted meeting: Motion Media / Avon HA , Bristol
MEMBERS NEWS
Speaking as Chair at a recent conference in London, Ricky Richardson
stated that medical and nursing schools are being "reprehensibly slow"
in preparing students to emerge into an IT-enabled world in healthcare. They
are being turned out totally unprepared for the systems that are being developed
and implemented and it's a problem in need of urgent attention.
Dr Richardson agreed with Keith Farrar, chief pharmacist at
Wirral Hospitals NHS Trust, that the problem with introducing newly-qualified
doctors to e-prescribing lay not so much in finding time for a few hours'
training, but in a system that expected so much from pre-registration house
officers who knew little about the practical business of treating patients,
ordering tests and so on. He advised "selling" e-prescribing as
a clinical tool and said that it is essential to get clinical "champions"
to support the implementation.
The Community Hospital and Rehabilitation Directorate of the
North West Wales NHS Trust has recently installed the MediView Telemedicine
System to extend their existing in house teledermatology service into a fully
integrated system. All consultations will be clinically coded and discharge
letters generated together with high quality images. This will upgrade and
develop a new way of working. e-mail: info@millennium-systems.com
PictureTel Corporation, an expert in integrated collaboration,
has highlighted the success of the PictureTel 900 Series in the health care
sector. Health care organisations around the world are using the video-conferencing
tool to meet the immediate medical needs of remote patients, conduct far-reaching
scientific research, and enable e-learning initiatives with doctors, nurses,
and health care professionals. Email: carey_jack@pictel.com.
Lifestream Technologies has announced the addition of three
new members to its Medical Advisory Board, a group of distinguished medical
and academic leaders to guide and champion the Lifestream mission: to improve
the health of consumers by providing Smart Card-enabled home and professional
diagnostic products and information platforms which includes its home-based
cholesterol monitoring system www.delarue.com
Regione Lombardia is the first Italian region adopting a Smart Card to simplify diagnostic procedure and to improve efficiency of the Italian health system.Netlink project defines two types of cards; HPC (Health Professional Card) used to identify and certify the doctor to the health system, and PDC (Patient Data Card) used to contain cardholder data, emergency data (i.e. blood group) and administrative data and clinical data (hospital admission) www.delarue.com
UK NEWS
The NHS Information Authority has launched a new style Clinical
Classification & Data Accreditation Support website. Published previously
as separate documents, the dictionary and manual have been consolidated into
an online searchable resource providing one authoritative source of information
www.coding.nhsia.nhs.uk/clin_class/class_home.asp.
New national standards that will ensure the same type of information
is collected and recorded for all cancer patients are now on trial. Nine health
organisations are currently piloting the new cancer datasets, which will help
to improve cancer care. They are testing out codes and definitions in order
to refine the dataset, and also to inform the implementation process. The
aim is to feed the lessons learned into a Cancer Data Manual, which will assist
all Cancer Networks with collecting this information. The Cancer Dataset website
is available at: http://nww.nhsia.nhs.uk/cancer/dataset/
(NHSnet) http://www.nhsia.nhs.uk/cancer/dataset/
The NHS Information Authority has launched a new newspaper dedicated
to covering developments in NHS IT, and providing details of NHSIA products,
services and progress against delivering on key targets. It will be published
bi-monthly and articles will also be published on the NHSIA website. The first
issue of Inform will include articles on ERDIP, SNOMED and NHS UK. www.nhsia.nhs.uk
The National Electronic Library for Health (NeLH) has launched
the first of a series of professional portals aimed at nurses and allied health
professionals. The Speech and Language Portal offers a convenient and organised
view of information available in the NeLH, tailored for speech and language
therapists needs. During 2001 Portals will be created for nurses, midwives,
health visitors physiotherapists, occupational therapists, podiatrists, dietitians,
orthoptists, psychologists and radiographers. www.nelh.nhs.uk/speechtherapist
The UK's local government Improvement and Development Agency
(IDeA) has selected a consortium to run its e-commerce system for local authorities.
The online exchange it will develop is expected to be the biggest inEurope.http://www.medexonline.com/news/item.cfm?ID=866&source=Medexonline
A new UK-based website has been launched to support the use
of knowledge management technologies for healthcare. OpenClinical aims to
help address the 'knowledge crisis' in medical care. www.openclinical.com
A new device to help disabled people with muscular weaknesses
to do light fetching and carrying tasks independently has been unveiled by
Cambridge University engineers.
http://www.medexonline.com/news/item.cfm?ID=909&source=Medexonline
OVERSEAS NEWS
TIE and the California TeleHealth and Telemedicine Center (CTTC)
have collaborated to expand online coverage. This partnership will pool resources
of both TIE and CTTC. TIE will continue its news service under "What's
New" and CTTC is debuting its news service as "teleHealthonline".
http://tie.telemed.org
According to University Science News, Johns Hopkins researchers
have found that experts monitoring offsite ICU patients via a computer can
reduce complications for ICU patients by up to 50%. Having off site monitoring
is not designed to be a replacement for full time staff but a way to help
assist with the problem of not having enough "intensivists" in the
ICU. A telemedicine system would enable a physician to monitor up to 40 to
50 patients at a time in multiple hospitals, compared to the 10 or 20 patients
able to be monitored while working full time in a critical care unit. Source:
Journal of Critical Care Medicine
Administrative, financial, and clinical connectivity between
care providers and other stakeholders across the healthcare value chain will
reinvent Europe's healthcare providers, according to a new Report by Forrester
Research. But getting there will require governments and private stakeholders
to invest in ubiquitous access, national connectivity backbones, and incentives
for participation. www.forrester.com
Nova Scotia will soon have an automated hospital information
system that will make patients health records available on computer to all
health care professionals involved in their treatment. This linkage will provide
patients, doctors, nurses and administrators with easier faster and secure
access to vital health information. Patients will no longer have to repeat
the same medical history over and over again. Wait times for test results
and x-rays will be decreased as will duplication of procedures.http://www.federaltelemedicine.com/n043001.htm
A new alliance of e-health firms and interested organisations has been set up in the US to promote the rapid advance of internet-enabled healthcare and articulate the vision of a networked healthcare system. eHealth Initiative will act as an advocacy and trade association dedicated to providing a unified voice for the e-health community. www.eHealthinitiative.com
PUBLICATIONS
Two American Nurses Association books related to teleHealth:
Core Principles on TeleHealth and Competencies for TeleHealth Technologies
in Nursing. The books can be purchased through iTeleHealth's ecommerce site
http://www.iteleHealthinc.com/cartsnap/cartsnap.cgi?iTeleHealth_Inc
. Order forms can also be found at http://www.iteleHealthinc.com/orderform.htm
USEFUL WEBSITES
Telematics for disabled and elderly people, an applied European
Commission research programme. The Telematics Applications for the Disabled
and Elderly sector is developing applications which provide support for independent-living,
autonomy and social integration opportunities http://158.169.50.95:10080/telematics/disabl/disabel.html
A report on the implications of the Internet and its technologies
for the healthcare community, produced by Ernst & Young LLP. http://www.ey.com/global/vault.nsf/US/O00159/$file/O00159.pdf
The Information Society Technologies Programme (IST) is a major
theme of research and technological development within the European Union’s
fifth RTD Framework Programme (1998-2002). Tele-Ophthalmological Services
- Citizen-centred Applications (TOSCA) started in January 2000 and will end
in December 2002. The project is based on the results and the experience of
the 4th FP OPHTEL project (Telematics in Ophthalmology). http://www-ophtel.gsf.de/
Details of current and past projects at the Centre for Health Informatics, University of Wales, Swansea. CareNet - a tool for assisting clinicians in exchanging information across professional and organisational boundaries; Telediab - assesses the feasibility of using PC based video teleconferencing (PCVT) technology to facilitate diabetic eye screening. http://137.44.37.10/chi/projects/body.asp
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
*Denotes the first appearance of the date of conferences and
meetings
*ASSIST National Conference and AGM 13 June 2001 at Wolverhampton
Science Park Booking forms available on the web www.assist.ork.uk
or from Jackie Eardley administrator@assist.org.uk
Tel: 01630 658854
6th International conference on the Medical Aspects of Telemedicine
Uppsala, Sweden 18-21 June 2001. For further information email:telemedicine2001@slu.se
www.service.slu.se/conference/telemedicine2001
Eighth European Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
1- 4 July 2001, Cascais, Portugal. http://centria.fct.unl.pt/conferences/aime01
UKTA Members Meeting Friday 6 July 2001. The event will be hosted
by Ortivus in Southampton. The programme and venue details have been circulated
The Information Revolution in Primary Care - Using Health Information
Effectively in the Internet Age 16 July 2001, London. Ruth Hudson, CPHVA Professional
Officer Tel: 0207 939 7055 / 0468 931 312 hudsonr@msf.org.uk
IBC's 6th Annual Drug Discovery Technology 2001 Conference 13-17
August, 2001 Seaport Hotel & World trade Centre, Boston, Massachusetts
www.drugdisc.com/us/?source=biospace2/
Medinfo2001 – the informatics route to knowledge –
towards global health. ExCel Congress Centre, London 2-5 September 2-5 2001.
Call for papers now out on the website www.medinfo2001.org
Intelligent Data Analysis in Medicine and Pharmacology A Workshop
at the Medinfo2001 London, UK, September 4th, 2001 http://magix.fri.uni-lj.si/idamap2001
UKTA Members Meeting Friday 28 September 2001 at the BT innovation
Centre at Adastral Park. The full programme for the event will be circulated
in the near future
Health Technology 2001 24-24 October 2001, Wembley, London briony.mansell-lewis@emap.com
*UKTA members meeting 7 November 2001 at Motion Media, Bristol.
This event is being jointly hosted by Avon Health Authority and Motion Media
and will include the UKTA AGM. The full programme will be circulated in the
near future
TEHRE 2001 11-14 November 2001 at the Cumberland Hotel, London.
For more information: www.medrecinst.com/conferences/tehre/index.shtml
*Telemed 2002 29-30 January 2002 at the Royal Society of Medicine,
London www.rsm.ac.uk/telemedicine
Telemedicine & Telecare International Trade Fair April 10-12,
2002.
www.telemedicine.lu
or email: info@telemedicine.lu
CIRCULATIONS THIS MONTH
ASSIST National Conference and AGM 13 June 2001 at Wolverhampton
Science Park Booking forms available on the web www.assist.ork.uk
or from Jackie Eardley administrator@assist.org.uk
Tel: 01630 658854
The Cambridge Technology Exchange, 23-24 May 2001 mailto:enquiries@cte2001.com
Report from the UKTA invitation to meet with the House of Commons
select Committee on Thursday 26 April 2001
NHS Direct Telemedicine job opportunity
The programme for 6 July members meeting at Ortivus, Southampton
AND FINALLY…….
The success of the newsletter depends very much on you! We want
the newsletter to be a tool for you to raise awareness to other members of
the work in which you are involved. This might be the development of new clinical
services, telecare products or new initiatives.
If you would like to contribute to the next circulation please
email monica@denwales.freeserve.co.uk
with your information
Please forward this e-mail to other colleagues who may find
it of interest.
Monica Dennis
Administration Officer
UK eHealth Association
Britannia House, 11 High Street, Cowbridge
Vale of Glamorgan CF71 7AD
Tel and fax: 01446 775189
Mobile: 0780 844 2079
Email: monica@denwales.freeserve.co.uk
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