eHealth updates - 13 December 2012

New policy, guidance and e-health initiatives from across the UK. For more information about the e-health theme see Quality and Safety e-Bulletin: e-health.

Some of the resources linked to are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files.

BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making: Predictive modelling: parents' decision making to use online child health information to increase their understanding and/or diagnose or treat their child's health. “The quantum increases in home Internet access and available online health information with limited control over information quality highlight the necessity of exploring decision making processes in accessing and using online information, specifically in relation to children who do not make their health decisions. The aim of this study was to understand the processes explaining parents' decisions to use online health information for child health care.”

Carers Scotland: A Weight Off My Mind: exploring the impact and potential benefits of telecare for carers in Scotland (PDF 4.91MB). This report presents the findings of research which was commissioned by Carers Scotland with funding from the Scottish Government’s Telecare Development Programme. The findings are based on an exploratory study which included interviews and focus groups with carers using telecare and interviews with key stakeholders involved in telecare delivery in Scotland. The report focuses specifically on carers’ experiences of telecare.

Centre of Excellence for Telehealth and Assisted Living (CETAL): Buckinghamshire New University have opened a Centre of Excellence for Telehealth and Assisted Living (CETAL) to assist healthcare professionals and postgraduate students with the process of organisational collaboration in key areas of telehealth implementation.

DH: Electronic cancer decision support tool initiative planned for 2013. Plans to pilot an electronic cancer decision support tool to help GPs detect cancer earlier have been sent out in a letter to trust chief executives. Cancer networks are now recruiting general practices to take part and are working with local trusts to prepare for the initiative which is expected to be fully rolled out from March 2013 for 6 months.

European Commission Digital Agenda for Europe: Putting patients in the driving seat: A digital future for healthcare. The European Commission has unveiled an action plan to address barriers to the full use of digital solutions in Europe's healthcare systems. The goal is to improve healthcare for the benefit of patients, give patients more control of their care and bring down costs.

Guardian: Do we need a telehealth tsar? Telehealth pilots show promising results but technology will not deliver benefits if care pathways are poorly designed.

Health Research Authority (HRA): HRA Confidentiality Advisory Group. The Health Research Authority has published the call for applications to recruit members to the Confidentiality Advisory Group. The information pack and application form are available on the HRA website.

Healthcare Today: Virtual diabetes clinic to go live. A virtual diabetes clinic is set to help patients in the Scottish Highlands better manage their condition. it will go live from January 2013 with the year-long pilot offering support to people with type one diabetes who live long distances away from specialist services.

Healthspace: Healthspace closed on 14 December 2012. This is because the service has not been as popular as was expected and because alternative approaches are being planned to give patients fuller access to their health information. Check out the HealthSpace section of the NHS CFH website for further information.

Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): Anonymisation: managing data protection risk code of practice (PDF 2.1MB). This code of practice explains the issues surrounding the anonymisation of personal data, and the disclosure of data once it has been anonymised. It explains the relevant legal concepts and tests in the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). The code provides good practice advice that will be relevant to all organisations that need to convert personal data into a form in which individuals are no longer identifiable.

Interactive Journal of Medical Research (i-JMR): Issues regarding the implementation of eHealth: preparing for future influenza pandemics. One hospital in Australia was selected for this study to identify the preparedness issues in relation to implementation of eHealth for future influenza pandemics.

International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO): IHTSDO Newsletter, November 2012 (PDF 459KB). The first newsletter from the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) is now available. 

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA): Association of Online Patient Access to Clinicians and Medical Records With Use of Clinical Services. This paper compares the face-to-face and telephone consultation rate of those with and without online access to medical records at KP Colorado. Patients had a higher use of real services in the year after starting with online access (excludes any visits within 30 days of signing up as those visits may have been a trigger to sign up). This is equivalent to 10 extra face-to-face consultations plus 5.5 telephone calls per 1000 patients per week.

Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR): Improving diabetes management with a patient portal: qualitative study of a diabetes self-management portal. "This qualitative study shows that online chronic disease management portals increase patient access to information and engagement in their health care, but improvements in the portal itself may improve usability and reduce attrition". The study, which was carried out in Canada, also identifies a grey area that exists in the roles that GPs and Allied health professionals should play in the facilitation of online disease management.

JMIR: Applying social network analysis to understand the knowledge sharing behaviour of practitioners in a clinical online discussion forum. This study, undertaken in Canada, investigated the knowledge sharing dynamics of a community of practice through an online discussion forum. The community studied was the Thai Pediatric Pain Discussion Forum.

JMIR: Impact of interactive web-based education with mobile and email-based support of general practitioners on treatment and referral patterns of patients with atopic dermatitis: randomized controlled trial. This study, carried out in Norway, concludes that "a Web-based educational intervention aimed at general practitioners combined with personal support can reduce the number of atopic dermatitis patient referrals to specialists."

National Information Governance Board (NIGB): Annual report 2012. The National Information Governance Board Annual Report 2012, covering the period November 2011 - October 2012, has been published.

NHS Commissioning Board: GP IT services operating model. This document explains how the management of IT systems for GP practices will be organised from April 2013. It enables clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to make decisions to suit particular local requirements, ensuring information and technology supports clinical commissioning to improve health outcomes for patients. From April 2013, the NHS CB will be responsible for primary care information services. It will delegate responsibility for operational management of GP IT services along with associated funding, to CCGs. This will include provision of clinical systems and associated hardware and network services and provision of support services such as training to GP practices.

NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH): NHSmail 2 project. The NHSmail 2 project has been established to look at options for when the current NHSmail contract comes to an end. The NHSmail 2 project is being delivered by NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH) on behalf of the NHS Commissioning Board and Department of Health and will transfer to the ‘new’ Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) from 1 April 2013. The RCN eHealth Advisor sits on the NHS mail stakeholder group and is keen to have contact with members who are NHS mail users in order to get their views about any issues they have encountered. Please contact Alison.wallis@rcn.org.uk.

NHS CFH:  NHS to benefit from information sharing challenge funding to develop new digital services. Having been oversubscribed by 100 % with almost 100 applications, the Department of Health Informatics Directorate has announced over 40 IT projects from across the NHS are to benefit from £2.2m funding to develop new digital services that improve patient care and can be used to share information more easily across the NHS. 

NHS Scotland Quality Improvement Hub: Social media Toolbox. NHS Scotland Quality Improvement Hub have launched this online Social Media Toolbox, providing explanations, ideas for use, examples of current NHS use and links to external tools.

Royal College of Physicians (RCP): Developing record standards. The Royal College of Physicians is seeking views , via a questionnaire, on Clinical Documentation & Generic Record Standards for the headings used for admission, handover, discharge, outpatients, referrals and core headings. These standards are very important for ensuring that electronic health records reflect the ways we work and provide the information we need in and understandable way.  
Review of consistency across the record standards – consultation. The questionnaire should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. The consultation closes on 1 January 2013.

Telemonitoring NI: Suporting health and wellbeing at home: In Northern Ireland, the Health Minister Mr Edwin Poots is backing Connected Health to improve patient care, for people with chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and COPD. The Telemonitoring NI service will allow thousands to monitor their vital signs without having to leave their own homes.
Northern Ireland Executive: Telemonitoring hailed a success on first anniversary.

Westminster Health Forum: Health records, information and technology in the NHS: implementing the Information Strategy. This Westminster Health Seminar takes place on 9 April 2013, and will hear from Dame Fiona Caldicott, Chair, Independent Review of Information Governance and Giles Wilmore, Director for Patient & Public Voice and Information Strategy, among others.