eHealth updates - 25 October 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.

ehi 2012 Awards: The CCIO Award for Clinical IT Leadership. Lead nurses from the Department of Health Informatics Directorate have won an award for the Leadership for Informed Practice programme which was designed to develop clinical informatics leadership capacity and capability in senior nurses and midwives. The CCIO Award for Clinical IT Leadership was one of the categories in the eHealth Insider EHI awards.

HealthTech Wire: Series of health informatics benchmarking and accreditation workshops launched. These workshops aims to provide NHS employees with the tools and knowledge they need to be able to judge whether services provided, commissioned or used are really fit for purpose. The workshops are regionally based and free for NHS employees to attend.

Journal of General Internal Medicine: Doctors who go digital provide higher quality of care. Outline of a study. Electronic health records and ambulatory quality of care, conducted by Weill Cornell Medical College which found that primary care doctors in the New York area who use electronic healthcare records (EHRs) provide better patient care than those that use paper records " Overall, physicians using EHRs provided higher rates of needed care than physicians using paper, and for four measures in particular: hemoglobin testing in diabetes, breast cancer screening, chlamydia screening, and colorectal cancer screening." 

Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR): eHealth program to empower patients in returning to normal activities and work after gynecological surgery: Intervention Mapping as a useful method for development. “The IM protocol was a useful method to develop an eHealth intervention based on both theory and evidence. All patients and stakeholders judged the eHealth intervention to be a promising tool to empower gynecological patients during the perioperative period and to help them to return to normal activities and work.”

JMIR: What young people want from a sexual health website: Design and development of Sexunzipped. “While it is challenging to meet all of young people’s technological and design requirements, consultation with the target audience is valuable and necessary in developing an online sexual health intervention. Young people are willing to talk about sensitive issues, enjoy the discussions, and can offer key insights that influence intervention development.” 

JMIR: Use and acceptance of electronic communication by patients With multiple sclerosis: A multicenter questionnaire study. “The majority of MS patients seen at specialist centers already use modern communication technology regularly. New forms of electronic communication appear to have high levels of acceptance for exchanging information about MS between patients and health care providers. Such methods should be integrated into eHealth services such as electronic health records and patient relationship management systems.” 

NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH): Viv Bennett, Director of Nursing, Department of Health. Video of Viv Bennett talking about the vision for information technology and communication in the nursing community. A transcript is also available. 

NHS CFH: SNOMED CT®: A user guide for General Practice (PDF 1004.9KB). Guidance produced by the UK Terminology Centre on using Snomed Clinical Terms for GP practices. 

NHS CFH: EMIS Web. SCR (Summary Care Record) go-live guidance material is available for GP practices using EMIS Web. 

NHS CFH: EPS Forum. The agenda and slides from October's Electronic Prescription Service forum are now available to download. 

NHS Education for Scotland: New training for safe information handling. A new NHSScotland training package to support staff in handling personal information is now available to all staff through each Board’s online learning centre or learnPro website. The e-learning module, called Safe Information Handling, is designed for use by all members of staff and sets out NHSScotland's requirements for data sharing and confidentiality. The package provides simple information about basic principles of data protection, guidance on good practice, sources of advice and further information.

Nursing Standard Nurse Awards. Nominations for the eHealth category in the Nursing Standard Nurse of the Year Awards close on 31st October.

RCN: RCN survey of the impact of eHealth on nursing. The RCN is keen to ensure that eHealth supports delivery of quality patient outcomes, and that the IT systems and equipment used are safe, fit for purpose and acceptable to clinicians and patients. To help us do that we are carrying out a survey of nursing staff’s views on the impact of information and communication technology on professional practice and we would like to know your views and experience of using eHealth to support you in your work or study. The survey is open until 9 November 2012. The online questionnaire will take approximately 20 – 30 minutes to complete and your responses will be confidential.

University of Leeds, Leeds Institute of Health Sciences: Professional development courses. The University is offering five day Continuing Professional Development courses for Health Informatics professionals within the public, voluntary and private sectors. These courses are drawn from postgraduate programmes in Health Informatics, and there is an  option to transfer to a Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma or Masters in Health Informatics.