INTRODUCTION
In the Newsletter last month, I told you that a number of changes were taking place both to the management and also to the Board of Directors of your Association. In terms of changes to the Board, I am delighted to announce that Alasdair Liddell has agreed to join the board as a co-opted member and he will be putting his name forward for election at the next AGM as will all the current Board members, who are up for re-election.
Alasdair Liddell is an independent consultant, working on a range of strategic e-health, e-learning and e-government projects. He spent 6 years at the Department of Health as Director of Planning for the NHS from 1994-2000, where he had Board-level responsibility for IT and Information Services in the NHS, the preparation of "the New NHS" White Paper, the "Information for Health" strategy and the launch of NHS Direct. Prior to that his NHS career spanned 25 years, as General Manager of hospitals and health authorities in London, and the East Anglian Regional Health Authority.
I see this as a very positive step forward as Alasdair represents the very senior echelons of the DoH and thus strengthens our links with Government and the NHS.
A Board meeting will be held during November and if you have any issues that you wish to bring up at that Board meeting for discussion please contact or email me.
In terms of the management structure, as I referred to last time, David Greenaway has stepped down as part time CEO due to pressure of other commitments.
The Board is in the process of appointing an interim Development Director who will manage the UKeHA on a day to day basis for the next 6 months. Full details will be announced shortly.
Due to pressures of time, we have decided to postpone the UKeHA conference planned for June of next year until later in the year. This is for two reasons; firstly because of potential clashes with other events around that time and secondly to enable us to have more preparation time. I hope you will understand the reasons behind this and we will be publishing further details shortly.
I am sure I speak for all of you in wishing to thank Terry Dennis who has been the membership secretary and Treasurer and an active member of the Board of the UKeHA since its inception. Terry is handing over the reins of Treasurer to Mike McCurry, who is the Business Development Manager for NHS Direct and is a co-opted Board member. Terry will also be stepping down from the Board in order to pursue his other interests, but of course, will remain an active member of the UKeHA.
It seems that this is a time of many changes both within the UKeHA and globally, but the exciting news is that we are strengthening our links with Government and in particular with the DoH, such that we can build on the meeting I had with Lord Hunt, the purpose of which was to define a specific role for the UKeHA to play in the NHS Modernisation Plan.
I am also pleased to announce that a meeting has been scheduled with the executive of the RSM Telemedicine Forum, which will take place in early December to explore how the organisations can work together more closely.
I will keep you posted as this development unfolds.
Warmest best wishes.
Dr Ricky J Richardson FRCP FRCPCH
Chairman
UkeHA welcomes the Royal College of Nursing as new members to the Association
An initiative designed to provide all NHS sites in Wales with equal broadband access has been launched. The initiative is supported by a £3m grant by the Welsh Assembly Government to add to current funds and projects. The service employs BT’s IPVPN technology, which provides a virtual private network over Web-based IP protocols. It is designed to provide access to central NHS Wales services, to the NHS Wales intranet and to the internet. It is envisaged that other services such as imaging, an email directory, EPR’s and outpatient services will run over the new network.
AxSys Technology have been contracted to deliver a Clinical Information and Image Management system to support the West of Scotland Telemedicine project for Managed Clinical Networks in cancer care. AxSys will implement 'Excelicare' in seven hospitals in a WAN configuration with the main Excelicare Server being situated at the North Glasgow NHS Trust. www.axsys.co.uk
AxSys Technology Ltd have been contracted by Northumbria Healthcare NHS
Trust on a consultancy basis with a view to becoming their preferred EPR supplier.
AxSys will implement Excelicare, the multi-specialty, multi-disciplinary integrated
care record system. www.axsys.co.uk
CLEFTSiS, the managed clinical network for Cleft-Lip and Palate has gone 'Live' with Excelicare. The main Excelicare Server is in Perth while Excelicare clients are spread throughout Scotland linked through the NHS Net. The objective of CLEFTSiS is to care for these patients, as far as possible in their own locality, whilst adhering to national guidelines and, through clinical governance, to monitor the standards of care against established international standards.www.axsys.co.uk
When an elderly woman on a recent US Airways Seattle-Pittsburgh flight began to suffer from shortness of breath, she was moved to the forward galley and given oxygen. Noticing that a fellow passenger was in some distress, Matthew Burke of TeleMedic Systems volunteered the use of his company's VitalLink 1200. After applying the device, Matthew and the two flight attendants monitored the woman's ECG, blood pressure, pulse oximetry, and temperature. As the flight progressed, Matthew noticed her oxygen saturation decline from 98% to 85%. A quick inspection revealed that the oxygen cylinder had been completely used, a fact which had been overlooked as the ambient noise in the aircraft muffled the sound of flowing oxygen. A replacement oxygen cylinder was found, and the woman's oxygen saturation rapidly rose back to a normal level of 98%. The flight proceeded normally to Pittsburgh. Had the aircraft been equipped with satellite communications, a ground-based physician could have provided further medical advice. (Source: TeleMedic Systems Press Release, 4th October 2002) www.telemedicsystems.com
Tunstall has launched the Lifeline 4000+, the most advanced home alarm and communications unit. The Lifeline 4000+ enables monitoring centres to deliver enhanced levels of service and care to support independent living to vulnerable people in the community. Lifeline 4000+ can be wirelessly linked to a wide range of intelligent Telecare Smart Sensors which include a fall detector, flood detector, gas/smoke/CO detectors, Visual Call Indicator (VCI), movement detector (PIR) and many more. For further information Abby Smith on 020 7287 0652 or email: abby@keenepa.co.uk
Tunstall and Jontek have forged a new partnership that will provide customers with even greater choice, flexibility and reliability to support the independent living of vulnerable people in the community. Features that customers will benefit from include Tunstall’s exclusive TT92 protocol that enables customers to distinguish what type of sensor has been activated and the location of that sensor. It will now be possible to monitor a far wider range of sensors allowing greater flexibility in the provision of Telecare solutions. And the detection of low battery warnings, linked to sensor type provides vital information which if not acted upon could threaten the safety of a user. For more information contact Rj_smith@tunstall.co.uk
UKeHA members are entitled to a 15% discount off of the registration fees for the forthcoming teleHealth 2002 conference, taking place on Wednesday 27 November at One Great George Street in London. Under the chairmanship of renowned writer and broadcaster John Humphreys, keynote speeches from the Health Minister, Lord Hunt of King's Heath and the Chairman of the House of Commons Select Committee on Health, David Hinchliffe MP, promise to make this an unmissable event. Further information is available from lisa.davies@avienda.co.uk
Members are also reminded of the e-Health and the Department of Health, the Wider Picture.11 November, 2002. Skipton House (DoH), London SE16LH. Visit www.medical-devices.gov.uk for more details
The National NHS IT Programme is scheduled to be submitted to a combined Government Gateway review by the end of October, with a full business case to be submitted to the Treasury for approval by November. The latest version of the timetable for the National IT Programme was detailed by Jeremy Thorp, the NHS Information Authority's director of development (programme and service delivery) http://www.e-health-media.com/news/item.cfm?ID=281
The Department of Health has announced that the introduction of two key e-business developments: the Occupational Health Smart Card (OHSC) and Electronic Staff Record (ESR), will be co-ordinated to help trusts more effectively introduce the new systems and train staff. The OHSC is due to be introduced between 2001-2004, while the ESR will be implemented between 2003-2005. Further information can be found at http://www.doh.gov.uk/sharedservices/.
The National Electronic Library for Health (NeLH) has announced the latest online resource to be added to the electronic library. It will be the world's first complete 3-D anatomical model of the head and neck. www.nelh.nhs.uk
The National Electronic Library for Health alerting service, "Hitting The Headlines: Assessing the facts behind the headlines". aims to provide busy health professionals with a rapid and reliable analysis of the evidence behind selected national newspaper reports. Unbiased, brief and readable summaries appraising the research evidence are posted on the NeLH web site within 48 hours of publication. http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/hth/archive.asp
A web-based psychotherapy treatment has won the right to be formally assessed by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, paving the way for its formal endorsement as an effective way to treat a wide range of phobias and depression. The web based therapy that offers guidance and information to individual patients through a structured series of questions and answers.http://www.fearfighter.com
Patients and carers in the UK have been granted access to the Cochrane Library, an online database that collates and reviews results of the most recent clinical trials, reports and conference proceedings from around the world. The library was made available to NHS staff last November through the National Electronic Library for Health. It is now available to all through NHS Direct Online. Source: Future Health Bulletin issue 12, 2002.
Department of Health National Programme for New and Emerging Applications of Technology 1st Call for proposals for Pump-priming projects http://www.neatprogramme.org.uk/proposals.asp. Closing date for receipt of applications is 15th November 2002
The NHS Shared Services Initiative, which is responsible for shared NHS financial services, the finance and e-commerce project and the development of the electronic staff record, has received approval to establish itself as a special health authority. The new authority will come into being in April 2003. This initiative and its successor authority are seen as an important component of the NHS modernisation process. In essence, the shared services programme is tasked with finding way of harnessing the best information technology to make back office functions - such as finance, HR, payroll and procurement - work smarter. Source: e Health Insider issue 42
In a successful experiment which could help to benefit the way surgery is performed, surgeons have begun viewing and manipulating 3D medical images of the very patients on whom they are operating while the operation is in progress. Early results indicate the potential for improving success rates on such procedures as the removal of cancerous tumours. In the first procedure of its kind, doctors at Manchester Royal Infirmary used a standard laptop computer in the operating room to project and manipulate in real time a complex, three-dimensional image of a patient's organ. Source VMW October 2002
A group of leading international medical schools, led by Scotland's University of Dundee, have announced plans to create the world's first online medical school. More than 50 institutions in 16 countries have helped plan the International Virtual Medical School, which is planned to open in the summer of 2004. The virtual school would allow students around the world to pursue a medical education through a combination of computer-based learning and clinical experience in local health facilities. Source eHealth Insider, issue 43
The Medical Records Institute (MRI) and SNOMED International have issued the results of the fourth Annual MRI Survey of Electronic Health Record (EHR) Trends and Usage. The survey provides the health care industry with a balanced and objective measure of current EHR practices and meaningful insights into market directions. The survey showed that the motivations for implementing EHRs have risen substantially in the last four years. The need to share patient data ranked at the top of the list, cited by 75 percent of respondents as their primary management and administrative motivating factor and by 90 percent of respondents as their top clinical motivating factor. Improving patient care and safety, reducing costs, and meeting legal and regulatory requirements were also key motivators for EHR adoption. Source VMW October 2002
The e-Science Centre in Cardiff is to put Wales at the leading edge of next-generation fast internet access. The centre envisages that the Grid – the planned successor to the Internet will deliver computing to businesses, users and public service organisations in just the same way as electricity is delivered at present. The 100m Broadband Wales programme is the biggest Government investment of its kind in the UK. Source: BJHC & IM October 2002
A proposed new top level domain name (.med.pro) will provide confidential communications for the medical profession. The domain name will provide encryption fr emails, just like the encryption used by banks and others who want secure communication. To register applicants must certify that they are members of the medical profession and provide information to confirm this. They will then be given a digital certificate that will enable the encryption of emails. Source: BJHC & IM October 2002
The new Information and Communications Technologies in Health Initiatives Database is the latest addition to the Resource Centre on Information and Communications Technologies in Health, sponsored by the Office of Health and the Information Highway (OHIH), Health Canada. This resource can be used to search for Canadian initiatives and programs in the areas of teleHealth, electronic health records, education and training, and health information infrastructure. http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ohih-bsi/res/init_e.html
The 2nd annual Telemedicine & Telecare International Trade Fair will take place on April 9-11, 2003 in Luxembourg. This trade fair is conceived as a business-to-business event where the industry can show its achievements, present its products and services, meet with users, buyers, researchers and policy makers from around the world, hold sales meetings and training sessions, and make presentations in the educational programme. For further information visit www.telemedicine.lu or send an e-mail to info@telemedicine.lu.
NHS Colleagues Reunited – a website which aims to put health service people, past and present, in touch with old friends. http://www.nhscolleaguesreunited.co.uk
Dinneen S. Holloway G. (2002) “The Potential Advances in Information and Communications Technology to Improve Care for Diabetics. BJHJC & IM vol.19 number 8 p26-28
Telecare: New Ideas for Care and Support@ Home. Puay Tang, David Gann and Richard Curry £12.99 ISBN 1 86134 216 0
Electronic tagging of people with dementia who wander
Julian C Hughes and Stephen J Louw BMJ 2002;325 847-848
*denotes a new entry
2002 UK Conferences
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
*Prescribing Telecommunications in the NHS 2002 Hall 8, National
Exhibition Centre, Birmingham 12-13 November 2002. View the Delegate Invite
including a booking form in PDF format (1,017kb) and RTF - Text only format
(8kb). Alternatively www.nhsia.nhs.uk/def/pages/features/d_270802.asp
*Modernising Healthcare: e-Health Exchange; 20 November 2002.
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster, London SW1
http://www.partnershipsinhealthcare.co.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
*TeleMed ’03 10th International Conference on Telemedicine and Telecare 29-30 January 2003 Royal Society of Medicine, London telemed@rsm.ac.uk www.rsm.ac.uk/telemedicine
HC2003 24 – 26 March 2003, Harrogate, Yorkshire Tel: 01886 833843 hc2003-judy@amiconf.demon.co.uk
*UK Radiological Congress 15-17 June 2003, Birmingham www.ukrc.org.uk
2002 Overseas Conferences
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
*Seventh Annual World Conference on the Internet and Medicine - Mednet 2002. 4-7 December, 2002 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands http://www.mednet2002/org/
*EUROREC 2002 – Electronic Health Records: Our Care 13-14 December 2002. Charite conference Centre, Berlin, Germany www.mshuge.org/events/eurorec/default.cfm str@medos.de
*First PanArab Congress & Fair on I.T in Medicine in Collaboration with 1st International Congress on I.T in Medicine; 19-21 March 2003 at the Mena House Oberoi Hotel, Cairo – Egypt. http://www.arabitmed.com
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 Centre, 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
*International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care (ISTAHC) International conference, "Improving outcomes through health technology assessment" from 22 - 25 June 2003 Canada http://www.istahc2003.org/home.cfm.info@istahc2003.org
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
http:// www.ukeha.org.uk