INTRODUCTION
August is traditionally a quiet time with most people taking holidays during the month. But this does provide time for reflection and contemplation of our industry.
The Government through its various departments is beginning to show some real interest in eHealth and its benefits. NHSIA are holding ‘Quality Information Solutions 2002’ at the NEC Birmingham on 11 and 12 September (www.nhsia.nhs.uk) whilst the Department of Health are holding a seminar ‘e-Health and the Department of Health, the Wider Picture’ on 11 November.
We are pleased to welcome the Hanover Housing Association as new members. It’s rewarding to see agencies other than health taking an interest in the power of eHealth and the benefits it can bring.
The Legionnaires disease outbreak in Barrow has raised questions over the time taken to deliver laboratory results and coordination with public health authorities. Hopefully lessons can be learnt and effort can be put into rectifying this through the use of appropriate proven technology and not months of enquiries so that someone can be blamed. Our industry members will tell you that the technology is there, ready and waiting for the innovative thinking health managers to adopt.
David Greenaway
Chief Executive
A CD Rom of the June 2002 UKeHA Conference proceedings is now available. It will be sent free of charge to all conference speakers and delegates. Further copies are available by sending a cheque for £25 to UK eHealth Association, Britannia House, High Street, Cowbridge, CF71 7AD. To reduce administrative costs cheques must accompany orders
The NHS Information Authority has announced that the new domain name for the NHS e-mail and directory service will be nhs.net. It will offer a portable "address for life" for staff moving between health service employers in England. The new format will be introduced from September 2002. www.nhsia.nhs.uk
The Welsh Assembly has provided £3 million to help connect every clinician in Wales to an NHS broadband network. So far all NHS trusts and around 230 GP practices have connected to the BT-run system. The Assembly has also highlighted a lack of appropriate provision for members of healthcare teams who need to be mobile, such as district nurses. Source: Future Health Bulletin July 2002.
The NHS Information Authority has begun a programme to
train e-tutors to help deliver the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL).
The qualification will be offered to up to 200 trainers who are working in
accredited NHS ECDL test centres. The course has been written specifically
for the NHS, and will form part of the Institute of IT Training's (ITT) wider
programme of continuing professional development. www.nhsia.nhs.uk
A Scottish pilot project allowing family doctors to access medical records on demand from any location using a mobile phone or portable computer is set to be expanded later this year after gaining formal NHS Information Authority security approval. The 'm-care' trial uses 'wireless application protocol' (WAP) to set up a secure live connection between a mobile device and a patient database. Doctors on home visits or night calls are able to browse the database and extract an instant summary of any record. http://www.m-care.co.uk
A new report suggesting that telecare technologies could help cut the £750 million a year cost to the NHS of 'bed blocking' - the inability to discharge hospital patients to social services through lack of community care resources was published recently. The Commons Health Select Committee report on delayed patient discharge recommends that the Department of Health establish a national strategy to promote the development of telecare solutions, including properly audited pilots. It is hoped that greater uptake of telecare would generate savings and improve patient autonomy as people could choose to be treated in their own home. http://www.parliament.uk/index.cfm
The potential of networked local NHS communities is being demonstrated by the Oxford Clinical Intranet, which uses easy-to-use Internet technology to make test results electronically available to GPs. The new system provides secure access to laboratory test results as soon as they have been completed, cutting paperwork and speeding up referrals and exchange of information. Source eHealth Insider July 2002.
The Scottish Academic Research Centre for Health Technology is to be shut down in October by its founding partners, Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities. The Centre for Mathematical and Computational Science in Medicine was set up by the universities in November 1999 with a three-year £650,000 pump-priming grant from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council . The aim was to establish a multidisciplinary centre applying mathematical and computational systems to medical problems. The centre is attempting to run two final workshops before it is closed including one on mobile computing in medicine, on 10 September 2002. http://www.cmcsm.ac.uk/mcmc2002 Source: Federal Telemedicine News July 2002.
The Department of Information Systems and Computing at Brunel University is about to offer one or more bursaries to exceptional students who wish to study full-time for a PhD. The bursary will cover fees (at EU students level) and a stipend. The Department's research interests within the telemedicine field and they are particularly interested in applicants who would like to do work in any of the following areas: telemedicine and telecare, security and confidentiality, novel applications of the Internet to healthcare. If you are interested, please send a CV to malcolm.clarke@brunel.ac.uk
Colorado announced this week that it would become the first US state to pilot Baby Care Link, a telemedicine solution to the problem of maintaining high quality communication with the parents of babies undergoing neonatal intensive care. (NIC) The solution, which links families to NIC units via a secure web site, claims to improve communication, increase family participation, enhance parent education and produce more effective discharge planning. http://www.babycarelink.com/
For years, proponents of telemedicine have been trying to get Medicare reimbursement for remote patient care, but with limited success. Now, several Members of the US Congress are pushing legislation that will greatly expand the number of teleservices that Medicare will cover. At least four bills, two each in the House and Senate, are expected to come up for consideration this Autumn. Capitol insiders say a compromise version of the bills could be attached to the Medicare prescription drug law, which Congress will consider in the Autumn session. http://www.himss.org/ASP/index.asp.
The Columbia Eye Clinic is working to produce a high-speed satellite broadband service. The service links the Columbia Eye Clinic with patients at the Beaufort-Jasper Hampton- Community Health Centre located in Ridgeland, South Carolina. The service will be able to screen patients for diabetic retinopathy even though they can be located 100 miles away. Patients will be scanned using a Non-Mydriatic Retinal Camera and the images will be sent by satellite connection to high definition computer screens in Columbia. http://www.hns.com http://www.aticorp.org
Department of Health publication, "Delivering 21st century IT support for the NHS" June 2002 http://www.doh.gov.uk/ipu/whatnew/deliveringit/index.htm
A new website has been launched in Rotherham to help young people over the age of seven find out more about their health and fitness. Surf4health covers sexual and mental health, nutrition, drugs and alcohol and gives information about local clinics and support groups. Children can ask personal questions online and receive answers in privacy: http://www.surf4health.info
2002 UK Conferences
e-Health 2002. The International e-Health Associations 2nd Annual Conference, 18-19 September 2002 London. Ehealth2002@cs.com www.eHealth2002.org
Healthcare Meets Medical Informatics and Innovation: The Future is Here 20-22 October 2002. Edinburgh International Conference www.hemmii.com
Reshaping Clinical practices and Procedures with Information Flows: The Autumn Forum. 7 November 2002, The Royal College of Surgeons, London. www.bjhc.co.uk
*e-Health and the Department of Health, the Wider Picture.11 November, 2002. Skipton House (DoH) SE16LH. www.medical-devices.gov.uk
teleHealth 2002 Wednesday 27 November 2002, One Great George Street, Westminster, London lisa.davies@avienda.co.uk. http://www.avienda.co.uk
TEHRE 2002 December, London www.medrecinst.com/conference/conferences.shtml
5th Annual Filmless Hospitals Conference. 4 December 2002 Hilton, Birmingham Metropole Hotel. Tel: 01932 821723 events@bjhcltd.demon.co.uk
HC2003 24 – 26 March 2003, Harrogate, Yorkshire Tel: 01886 833843 hc2003-judy@amiconf.demon.co.uk
2002 Overseas Conferences
EuroPACS2002. 5-7 September 2002 at the Medical Faculty, University of Oulu, Finland. www.mirg.oulu.fi/europacs/general.html
7th International Conference on Telemedicine 22-25 September 2002, Regensburg, Germany http://www.ict2002.org
5th European Health Forum 25-28 September 2002 Bad Hofgastein, Salzburg, Austria http://www.ehfg.org/website02/
4th Nordic Congress in Telemedicine/Nordsk Telemed 2002 30 September – 2 October 2002. University Hospital of Tromso, Norway Torill Berg, Tel: +47 77 754160 or email: torill.berg@telemed.no
*The Canadian Society of TeleHealth 5th Annual Meeting, 3-5 October 2002, Vancouver, British Columbia. http://www.cst-sct.org/
Mobile Healthcare 16-18 October 2002 Sands Expo, Las Vegas. www.medrecinst.com/conference/wireless/index/shtml
*Electronic Health Records Analyzing and Implementing Strategies for Hospitals 7-8 November, 2002 Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego, CA www.medrecinst.com/ehrsem
*Tele-trauma: An In-Depth Review 8-9 November, 2002,Sheraton Hotel, Burlington, Vermont christine.lash@uvm.edu. http://cme.uvm.edu
*The Caribbean Telemedicine Association 2nd Annual CARTMA Conference: Come Play in the Sandbox. 17-19 November, 2002. Inter-Continental Hotel San Juan, Puerto Rico www.cartma.org
2nd annual Telemedicine & Telecare International Trade Fair, 9-11 April 2003, Luxembourg, info@telemedicine.lu, www.telemedicine.lu
TEPR 2003 10-16 May 2003 San Antonio Convention Center, San Antonio. www.medrecinst.com/conferences/tepr/index.shtml
8th World Conference on Nursing Informatics. EHealth for All: Designing the Nursing Agenda for the Future. 20-25 June 2003 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil www.ni2003.com
e-Health and the Department of Health, the Wider Picture.11 November, 2002. Skipton House (DoH) SE16LH. www.medical-devices.gov.uk
Please forward this e-mail to other colleagues who may find it of interest.
Monica Dennis
UK eHealth Association
Britannia House, 11 High Street, Cowbridge
Vale of Glamorgan CF71 7AD
Tel and fax: 01446 775189
Mobile: 07811 159800
Email: monica@denwales.freeserve.co.uk
www.ukeha.org.uk