eHealth updates - 13 September 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 & Decision Making: Why technology matters as much as science in improving healthcare. Several key changes are in order. “A helpful first step lies in better understanding the distinction between science and technology, and their complementary strengths and limitations. The absolute level of funding for technology development must be increased as well as being more integrated with traditional science-based clinical research.”

BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making: Boundaries and e-health implementation in health and social care. “The major problem facing health and social care systems globally today is the growing challenge of an elderly population with complex health and social care needs. A longstanding challenge to the provision of high quality, effectively coordinated care for those with complex needs has been the historical separation of health and social care. Access to timely and accurate data about patients and their treatments has the potential to deliver better care at less cost.”

BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making: A national survey of health service infrastructure and policy impacts on access to computerised CBT in Scotland. “NICE recommends computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT) for the treatment of several mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. cCBT may be one way that services can reduce waiting lists and improve capacity and efficiency. However, there is some doubt about the extent to which the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK is embracing this new health technology in practice. This study aimed to investigate Scottish health service infrastructure and policies that promote or impede the implementation of cCBT in the NHS.”

Department of Health: Information sharing challenge funding to help develop digital services announced. The Department of Health has announced a local NHS organisation award for new digital services that improve patient care and can be used to share information more easily across the NHS announced today. The information sharing challenge fund (ISCF) is looking for innovative ideas that change the way information is currently used and shared between different organisations.

Department of Health: IT agreement to save the taxpayer over £1 billion. The Department of Health has renegotiated its contract with CSC the supplier of the Lorenzo Electronic Patient Record system. The contract will ensure that Lorenzo is fit for purpose and focuses on the NHS’s current needs as well as providing value for money. Under the new agreement, the government will achieve savings of over £1 billion to be reinvested into the NHS and CSC’s exclusive rights to be the only provider of clinical IT systems in the North, Midlands and East of England have been removed.

Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS): Collaboration key to making best use of technology in health service. Health Minister Edwin Poots and Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster have launched the Northern Ireland Connected Health Ecosystem. The ecosystem is a forum which will bring together stakeholders from the HSC, academia and business to discuss and take forward connected health solutions within Northern Ireland.

EHI Live 2012. This two day conference on 6-7 November 2012 is where “suppliers, healthcare IT professionals and clinicians discuss and debate the issues facing those who are involved in healthcare IT and want to use it to improve the efficiency and quality of health service”.

Medical Research Council (MRC): New Centres put health records at the heart of UK medical research. £19 million has been invested by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and a consortium of government and charity, to establish four e-health research Centres of Excellence in London, Manchester, Dundee and Swansea. The Centres will open in late 2012 and will harness the wealth of UK electronic health records to improve patient care and public health.

National Pharmacy Association: Community pharmacy: an information strategy. Pharmacy Voice has launched an IT strategy which outlines a cross-sector plan for the development of pharmacy systems. Pharmacy Voice is formed by the three largest community pharmacy associations.

NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH): New fund will boost digital innovation. Funding of up to £99,000 will be available for NHS organisations that come up with new digital services, that improve patient care and help share information more easily across the NHS. The Information Sharing Challenge Fund (ISCF) is looking for innovative ideas that change the way information is currently used and shared between different organisations, so that NHS staff, clinicians and patients can access information when they need to and patients can be involved in decisions about their care if they wish to be. The deadline for applicants is 5 October 2012.

NHS CFH: Initiatives map and register. The QIPP digital technology team has published an interactive map and register of technology to help share innovation within the NHS.

NHS CFH: Healthspace is closing down. The HealthSpace service is closing down. The service has not been as popular as expected and alternative approaches are being planned to give patients fuller access to their health information.

NHS CFH: NHSmail 2 project. The NHSmail 2 project has been established to look at options for when the current NHSmail contract ceases. Despite the name of the project, no assumptions have yet been made about the solution. Further information will be published on this site as it becomes available.

NHS CFH: N4: building on the success of N3. N3, the NHS national network, is recognised by NHS staff, the Department of Health and Government as a successful and indispensible part of national and local IT services. The N4 project will, on behalf of the NHS, develop options for what happens when the current N3 contract comes to an end. These options will be driven by the requirements of health and care organisations in consultation with potential suppliers. The project will support the Department of Health's information strategy 'The Power of Information'. It will also support and align to the Government's Public Sector Network (PSN) Strategy.

NHS Institute: Innovation, health and wealth - Digital First report (PDF 2.5MB). This report sets out ten initiatives that aim to improve quality and value of NHS services. “Digital can enhance the majority of admin processes as well as support clinical interactions. There are a clear number of easy-win digital channel improvements we can introduce from today that will help build up momentum on our journey towards creating a digitally-enhanced NHS”.

NHS Lanarkshire: Mobile eHealth devices: progress and potential. This event is being run by NHS Lanarkshire on 2nd October at Kirklands HQ NHS Lanarkshire. If you are unable to attend in person the talks will be available as live webinars, and will also be available to view after the event. For further information please email Anita.Maison@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

NHS Wales Informatics Service: Broadband boost for GPs in Wales. The improvements will give GP surgeries greater bandwidth, which will increase upload and download speeds and boost system performance. Upgrades will be rolled out to Wales 472 GP practices by summer next year, giving the majority up to 10Mb bandwidth. This is a significant improvement on the 1mb or 2mb connections currently in place.

PLoS One: Social Network Analysis in Healthcare Settings: A Systematic Scoping Review. The authors of this study, published in PLoS One, conducted a systematic review to evaluate the use of social network analysis to support the implementation of change in healthcare settings. This was done to inform work on the development and implementation of tailored behaviour-change interventions to improve the uptake of evidence into practice in the English National Health Service.

Strategic Society Centre: Who uses telecare? This report sets out the findings of a major quantitative research project into users and potential users of telecare in England which was supported by Age UK. The research analyses data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) for 2008 to explore the characteristics of personal alarm and alerting device users in the older population and explores many factors including gender, age, income, receipt of formal and informal care, health and disability, and housing. The report estimates potential telecare users in the older population.
The future of who uses telecare. Policy analysis and recommendations building on the findings of the research report.
Guardian: Millions of people could benefit from telecare.

Summary Care Record: Summary Care Record now on Twitter. The Summary Care Record programme now has a Twitter account, where it offers the latest national, regional and local news about the SCR.