December 2001/January 2002
INTRODUCTION
I would like to open this newsletter by wishing you all a prosperous and successful New Year. Last year we heard many promises from Government about increased spending in Healthcare and interest / support for eHealth. However very little evidence of this support being translated in to business exists. Lets hope this is just a time lag and that 2002 will show a real upturn of business in the eHealth marketplace. Its now time for all stakeholders to share in the benefits our industry can provide.
At the AGM we discussed many areas for development in the future. One was the change of name, which is currently being phased in. Another was the provision of additional services for members through the introduction of Special Interest Groups (SIGs). The first two of these are now being developed.
The Technical Interest Group held its inaugural meeting just before Christmas and is due to meet again early in January. Its core membership has been agreed and these members are finalising the group’s scope and focus at present. Additional members with specialist skills will be invited to attend as and when required. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ian Chell (Chair) and Alasdair MacDonald (Secretary) for their hard work in setting up this interest group.
The second Special Interest Group will have a Legal and Ethical emphasis and the first meeting is due in February. Key members are being identified at present and more details will be published as they become available.
Please feel free to contact us if you have an interest in either of these groups.
I can’t close the introduction without reference to the annual conference and exhibition in June. There are still a few opportunities for stands space and other sponsorship packages. However, we have just ‘gone public’ to non-members and expect keen interest. If any members still have requirements please contact me as soon as possible to avoid embarrassment.
King Regards
David Greenaway
C.E.O
NEW MEMBERS
Altnagalvin Health & Community Trust
Solihull PCT
Date Venue
22 January Hosted by Nestor Healthwatch, Hatfield
24 April Hosted by Axsys, Glasgow
11-13 June UkeHA Conference, Cardiff
Dates for September and November will be posted in the near
future.
Lancashire Ambulance Trust is working in partnership with ntl: to equip its ambulances with a revolutionary new Electronic Patient Report Form system. This will save ambulance crews vital time at incidents and provide a seamless patient care pathway as well as improving the efficiency of the overall patient reporting system. The system will enable ambulance staff to directly input patient information into a user friendly handheld PC. Mobilise data system, already installed on all Lancashire vehicles will transfer data to the ambulances en route to an incident. Once input, information can then be transferred to the receiving hospital department using Smart Card technology and stored electronically for later use in evaluating the clinical effectiveness of the patient care delivered. Paul.bastow@las-t.nwest.nhs.uk
Assisting Carers using Telemedics Interventions to meet Older Peoples’ Needs (ACTION) was initially a 36 month nurse led project which was carried out in five European countries: The Project is currently being continued in partnership between the Ulster Community & Hospitals Trust and University of Ulster Coleraine and the package is presently being adopted for Dementia Care. 24 hour support via A video link enables contact between the carer and the key worker from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and out of these hours with a Registered Mental Nurse in the Mental Health In Patient Unit at Ards Hospital.. Alan Hunt, CPN email: ann.pauley@ucht.n-i.nhs.uk
A new report by the Audit Commission has highlighted the need to invest in IT systems to cut the increasing number of patients who die after being given the wrong drugs in hospital. Approximately 1,200 people died last year in England and Wales as a result of the medication errors often caused by ineffective information systems and human errors - a rise of 500% over the past decade. The Audit Commission's "A Spoonful of Sugar" report says many of these deaths were entirely avoidable as they were a result of doctors not having the right information about the patients at hand - either because notes are illegible, incomplete or missing altogether. www.e-health-media.com/news/item.cfm?id=76
Digital TV subscribers in Hull and East Yorkshire are to act as guinea pigs for the TV version of NHS Direct. The service will be available free to the 10,000 subscribers of Hull-based Kingston Interactive Television for six months beginning on 29 November. In January 2002, a more visual form of the service will be available in areas of London on a broadband cable service provided by Video Networks. Source: Future Health Bulletin Nov/Dec 2001
Treasury money for a community health web portal in Barnet is 'in limbo' following the merger of Barnet Health Authority. In March a project led by the former authority was awarded £91,000 from the Treasury's Invest to Save Budget, a fund directed at cross-government cost-cutting projects. Following the merger a month later, some of the team leading the project left the new authority, which decided to proceed with cheaper, in-house plans. One way out may be provided by Barnet Council, which separately won a massive 458,000 pounds in the same Invest to Save round and is set to develop a strikingly similar multi-media portal. The council-run platform will be called 'one-bar.net'. Barnet Primary Care Trust, a new local health care provider organisation created on 1 April, may have input into the new council-led project. The new partnership may revive elements of the old health project. For details of both ISB projects see www.isb.gov.uk/results.asp?keys=barnet
A new web information portal on UK residential care homes, 'Bettercaring.co.uk', has been launched by The Stationery Office.www.bettercaring.co.uk provides information on care places available at more than 20,000 registered residential and nursing homes across the UK as well as other service details. The service is aimed at the public, care home operators, council social service departments, care professionals and the NHS. Plans for further development include the addition of a database on sheltered accommodation and assisted living within the next three months. Talks are also ongoing with the UK Homecare Association about the possibility of adding a database of domiciliary care providers next year. Source: Future Health Bulletin Nov/Dec 2001
A World Health Organisation initiative to give developing countries free access to leading medical journals is due to launch on 1 January 2002. The Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) was developed in response to a call from health researchers and academics in the developing world who said the high cost of journals raised "an insurmountable barrier" to accessing information. The initiative is one of a series of worldwide online pilots serving international agencies, non-governmental organisations and the private sector to test different types of connectivity and content. A list of countries eligible to join the project can be found in a pdf file at www.who.int?library/reference/temp/Eligible_countries.pdf
Leading US doctor, hospital and consumer groups have formed the Patient Safety
Institute (PSI), a major new collaborative initiative designed to harness
and integrate secure IT systems to improve patient safety and healthcare quality,
The aim is to develop a confidential computer network, based on open standards,
to electronically link medical records so doctors can instantly access vital
information needed to treat patients safely. Source: e-Health insider: Issue
2. December 2001
The New Mexico Department of Health is resourcing the Rapid Syndrome Validation
Project (RSVP) system and pilot project currently under development. The system
implements a touch screen based system enabling health care providers in an
Urgent Care and Emergency Room setting to rapidly enter clinical and demographic
data on patients with a variety of infectious disease syndromes. Currently,
RSVP is a collaboration of Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, University
of New Mexico Emergency Medical Department and the New Mexico Department of
Health, Office of Epidemiology. http://www.federaltelemedicine.com/n121001.htm
Virtual reality technology that will allow trainee surgeons to learn and practise on "virtual patients" is being trialled in the Division of Surgery at Nepean Hospital in Sydney. The technology, developed by scientists at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), combines 3D images with an artificial sense of touch to create a realistic simulation of surgical procedures. Users not only see realistic "organs", they can "feel" and manipulate them too. Source: VMW December 2001
A $1 million Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) Grant grant has been awarded for the use fiber-optic technology instead of telephone copper cables for data transmission. Physicians in El Paso who treat patients in Marfa or other parts of West Texas through the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center's telemedicine programs will soon have quicker access to their patients medical records. The grant will help improve telemedicine services to rural areas and to non traditional partners such as nursing homes. The grant will also enhance telemedicine services offered by the burn clinic in El Paso and will speed up the exchange of electronic data for the radiology and epilepsy programs. Source: Federal Telemedicine News November 2001
The University of Athens is preparing courseware for the two-year European WebSET project, in which standard educational tools are built to teach surgical skills over the Web by means of 3D computer simulation. The courseware will be applied at the University Hospital of Athens to teach young surgeons and medical students how to establish a new operative setting and how they can put endoscopic tools safely into the patient's abdomen. This is the first step to start a laparoscopic procedure. Source: VMW December 2001
The eHealth Initiative, a nonprofit consortium of more than 50 leading health care companies wants to see the use of digital information technology (IT) and Internet-based communications to help ensure a fast and effective response to large scale bioterrorism. The consortium is offering a blueprint of how the greater use of IT can enhance and support the U.S. public health infrastructure. http://www.federaltelemedicine.com/n112601.htm
Research into digital solutions for health problems has the potential to combine
medical advances with the creation of valuable commercial products. With this
in mind, the European Commission has committed 11 million euros to this kind
of project over the past 12 months. Four of the five projects selected for
funding by the commission's Information Society Technology research fund involve
telemedicine, using the Internet to allow doctors to treat or monitor patients
over long distances. The first telemedicine project is '@HOME', a research
initiative that aims to develop technology to allow doctors to see if patients
who are chronically ill or recovering from an operation are sticking to their
drug regime. http://www.ibmt.fhg.de
A revolutionary technology and robotic device that may help people with paralysis to walk again was unveiled for the first time in the United States at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago by Dr. David Chen, medical director of spinal cord injury rehabilitation at this Institute. Dr. Suzy Kim, a physician who has paraplegia, demonstrated the machine. The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago will use the machine technology initially for research. Pending Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, the Institute plans to use Lokomat in a clinical training programme within the next two years. Source: VMW December 2001
The proceedings of the Sixth International Internet in Medicine Conference, Mednet 2001, held recently at the University of Udine, Italy, have been posted online: http://mednet2001.drmm.uniud.it/proceedings/list.php
The organisers of the Seventh International Symposium for Health Information Management Research 2002 are calling for papers with a closing date of 15 February next year:http://hi europe.co.uk/meeting/announce/9967.htm
Essentials of Telemedicine and Telecare, A.C. Norris, List price:
£27.50 This book charts the development of the telemedicine industry,
defining
its current scope, and revealing the potential of new methodologies aspong@wiley.co.uk
Taking Health Telematics into the 21st Century. Michael Rigby, Ruth Roberts and Michael Thick. Radcliffe Medical Press, 2000. 217 pp, £35, hb ISBN 1 85775 344 5
Going Paperless a Guide to Computerisation in Primary Care. Nicola Shaw. Radcliffe Medical Press 2001. 216 pp, £19.95, pb ISBN 1 85775 519 7
Enterprise Digital Imaging: A Key Component of Clinical Transformation can be downloaded from www.fcg.com/services/ets/digital_imaging.asp
"The New Frontier: Exploring eHealth Ethics". The book compiles, for the first time, all the major ethical codes and guidelines for health Web sites. The book can be ordered on-line www.urac.org/publications/eHealth_ethics/index_eHealth_ethics.htm
"Vital Signs Update: Doctors Say eHealth Delivers". A report based a nationwide survey of a cross section of 400 practising physicians which takes a closer look at how the Internet is influencing the physician's behaviour. The survey indicates that eHealth has quietly become a vibrant medium for reaching the medical community, and promises to gain even greater acceptance in the near future. www.hoise.com/vmw/01/articles/vmw/LV-VM-12-01-21.html
Doctors' use of electronic medical records systems in hospitals: cross sectional survey Hallvard Larum, Gunnar Ellingsen, and Arild Faxvaag BMJ 2001;323 1344-1348
Infopoints: IER---an educational resource for health informatics in general practice Alan Hassey and Paul Robinson BMJ 2001;323 1348 http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/323/7325/1348
*Denotes the first appearance of the date of conferences and meetings
2002 UK Conferences
2002 Overseas Conferences
IT and the NHS Plan "Harnessing the benefits of the IT
revolution" Tuesday 20 November 2001. Forte Posthouse Regents Park, London
http://www.healthcare-info.co.uk/lh1131/?source=lh31tmxdw
UK health sector organisations are invited to an information day on 27 November 2001 in London designed to help them secure funding for IT projects from the European Union's Information Society Technologies (IST) multi-million Euro programmes. For further details e-mail mailto:f5infoday@glasgows.co.uk quoting "Eighth Call Information Day" as the reference or visit http://www.ukishelp.co.uk
Please forward this e-mail to other colleagues who may find it of interest.
Monica Dennis
Administrator
UK eHealth Association
Britannia House, 11 High Street, Cowbridge
Vale of Glamorgan CF71 7AD
Tel and fax: 01446 775189
Mobile: 07811 159800
Email: mdennis@ukeha.org.uk
www.ukeha.org.uk