Keep track of your blood pressure records.

Watch them on a pretty chart. Share them with your doctor. Let your Facebook and Twitter friends know how you’re doing. Oh, and it’s free.

Click the link to to find out more about how to Keep track of your blood pressure records

Open for Registrations 22nd and 23rd September 2010

Register now for the most exciting eHealth conference in Scotland this year! Held at the prestigious Glasgow Science Centre you not only have a great programme, wide range of exhibitors, great views over the Clyde and City but complementary entrance to the fun science exhibits as well!

The futuristic building mirrors BCS Health Scotland’s Innovative and Modern outlook See Here

We have an extensive International speaker Programme over both days with three themes held in twin parallel tracks.

Keynote speakers include:

Matthew Swindells, former CIO Connecting for Health, and chair BCS Health

Rikard Lovstrom from Sweden to talk about their National Patient Overview project and eHealth strategy

Dorothy Whittick from Canada talking about the Canadian Health Infoway national developments and a Wellness project in Alberta

Brian Robson from Scotland on the Quality theme and his experiences with IHI in America.

Kathy Dallest from Australia speaking on Clinical Safety Management in eHealth.

New! NHS Scotland eHealth Awards!

An exciting new event will be presentation of the ‘NHS Scotland eHealth Awards!’. These awards are given to winning NHS teams for three categories sponsored by BCS and Scottish Government.

Twin Exhibitions: We are very grateful to our sponsors with 18 commercial exhibitions in a superb bright atrium area and ANOTHER FIRST: 15 public information stands in a separate gallery open to the public. There is plenty to see!

The three main themes to be addressed at the BCS Health Scotland Conference 2010 are Quality, Innovation, and Efficiency. International speakers from Australia, Canada, Sweden, America, Ireland, Wales and numerous UK speakers will position themselves on current relevant issues such as patient safety, the quality strategy, efficiency gains from IT and more.

For the first time, the NHS Scotland eHealth Awards will be presented to eHealth teams in Scotland. These awards will be presented by Scottish Government and by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, to help boost the status of the IT profession in NHS Scotland at a time of significant change.

Moreover the new Vidiowiki delegate social networking tool will be used for linking up delegates before and after the event. Users can navigate a mind-map of delegates, speakers and exhibitors to create linkups and watch short clips about presentations and demos. This will help planning and networking before coming to the event.

A selection of posters will be available to view during the conference:

• A novel security risk assessment model – Napier University
• Clinical content modeling – NHS National Services Scotland
• Trans-national exchange of eHealth innovations in northern Europe- Aberdeen University
• A Study to evaluate the effectiveness of an electronic dashboard – Ulster hospital
• A Study to evaluate the response times for alerts – Ulster hospital

Around 250 participants are expected to take part in this open event. Online registration is possible here. Details about fees and early bird registration can be found online.

A draft programme for the event can be found online at the event website.

Exhibitors are also leading a fun social evening at 5pm on the first day.

Yet again BCS Health Scotland has been able to produce all this for the incredibly low delegate registration prices starting as low as £30.

So register soon for the early bird rates, find us here BCS Health Scotland Conference

By Nick Triggle
Health reporter, BBC News

Electronic patient care records will require an “enormous effort” and a “high cost” to fulfil their potential, a study warns.

University College London researchers said the project had been dogged by technology problems and tensions which had led to delays.

They said early evidence from users also suggested benefits were limited.

The new government backed e-records, but said it was right to review the way they were being rolled out.

The development of a medical records database for 50m patients in England is a central plank of the £12bn upgrade of the NHS’s IT systems.

The basic patient record – known as the summary care record – includes information on allergies, medication and adverse reactions.

Further details may be added over time and it will be accessible to healthcare workers anywhere in the NHS eventually.

Problems

Problems have dogged the scheme for years with GPs raising concerns about patient confidentiality and safety.

To date, just 1.2m patients have had their records uploaded although 30m have received letters informing them about the system.

The UCL team interviewed patients and professionals involved with the project as well as analysing data from a range of sources during the research.

It found there had been difficulties over what should actually be included in the records, while ensuring GP records were complete and accurate had been a “huge task”.

Transferring data had also proved problematic because of incompatible computer systems.

All this meant that extra costs in terms of staff time and financial investment were being incurred, researchers said.

This may even lead to the programme going over the £200m budget, the BBC understands.

The report was also critical of the opt-out system. Patients are allowed to stop their records being uploaded, but less than 1% of those who were written to have done this.

Click the link for more information about Health e-records

NHS computer system

29/03/2010

A new £44 million IT system which will pave the way for a paper-free NHS was today launched.

The Patient Management System (PMS) will be used to streamline in-patient and out-patient bookings, manage waiting lists, order tests and report test results.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said that PMS is the first system that can be used in any hospital in the NHS and will replace paper processes, improving security and freeing up time for staff to spend on other vital tasks.

It will enable staff to keep track of patient records much more easily and allow information to be communicated back to GPs.

Until now, health boards have had different patient management systems in place. Ensuring they are all using the same one will make it easier for information to be shared securely when a patient is being treated by more than one health board.

So far, six NHS boards across Scotland have signed up to the system, covering 70 per cent of Scotland’s population, with the rest set to join in the coming months.

The system was launched with a visit to Monklands Hospital in Airdrie to see how a trial of the new programme has benefited patients and staff in the renal ward.

Ms Sturgeon said:

“This is a major step towards a paper-free NHS.

“This new system will be much more efficient, faster and more secure than outdated paper-based systems. It also frees up money to be spent on front-line services and is better for environment.

“Benefits for patients and staff include improved security, faster test results, staff being able to share information more quickly, and having staff freed up to carry out other tasks.

“It will also reduce the number of times patients have to give repeat information, which I know can be incredibly frustrating.

“Communicating with patients is one of the areas that I am absolutely determined the NHS will improve on and this new system will help us achieve this.

“This is just one of a range of steps we are taking to put the quality of care patients receive at the heart of everything the NHS does.”

Dr Jamie Traynor, consultant in renal medicine at Monklands Hospital, said:

“This Patient Management System is, to me, the first major leap towards a hospital-wide electronic patient record with huge advantages in the delivery of patient care.

“As well as the many efficiency benefits, patients will benefit directly as the staff looking after them will be able to make treatment decisions based on real-time access to up-to-date information such as blood results and medicines.

“It is also worth stressing that there will be a level of security built into this system that will exceed what we are able to achieve with paper records.”

The TrackCare™ connected healthcare information system, developed by InterSystems Corporation, will be implemented as the Patient Management System by health boards in Ayrshire & Arran, Borders, Grampian, Greater Glasgow & Clyde and Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian has already implemented the programme.

The framework contract enabling all Scottish health boards to sign individual contracts from this solution was signed earlier this year. Representatives from the consortium health boards above who led the procurement programme today signed contracts against it to the value of £44 million.

22nd and 23rd September 2010

Glasgow Science Centre www.glasgowsciencecentre.org

Giving you advance notice that our conference this year will be the biggest and brightest yet! We are staging this event at the prestigious Glasgow Science Centre where you not only have great views over the Clyde and City but complementary entrance to the fun science exhibits. The futuristic building mirrors BCS Health Scotland’s innovative and forward looking approach..

We have three themes this year which are quality, innovation, and efficiency.

Keynote speakers include:

Matthew Swindells, former CIO Connecting for Health, and chair BCS Health

Rikard Lovstrom from Sweden to talk about their National Patient Overview project and eHealth strategy

Dorothy Whittick from Canada talking about the Canadian Health Infoway national developments and a Wellness project in Alberta

Brian Robson from Scotland on the Quality theme and his experiences from the USA.

PRESENTATIONS INVITED – Do you have something interesting to present in one of our themes ?

To get in touch please use the contact form

Exhibitions confirmed include:

Exhibitors are staging a social networking evening after the first day events so look out for a fun time as well as stimulating and thought provoking discussions.

If you would like to Exhibit please contact Neil Campbell using the contact form

NHS Scotland eHealth Awards!

An exciting new departure will be the ‘NHS Scotland eHealth Awards!’.  These awards are given to winning NHS teams for three categories sponsored by BCS and Scottish Government, look out for an announcement in the next few weeks.

GPs under pressure to share the health files of patients

Published on 27 Feb 2010

Doctors fear confidential medical records belonging to millions of Scots could be accessed at thousands of computer terminals across the ­Scottish NHS.

GPs say they are coming under increasing pressure to release files containing patients’ medical histories to the wider health service and are so concerned they are to hold a special debate on the issue next month.

Patients’ representatives have also raised concerns and the Information Commissioner’s Office says there must be adequate safeguards to keep information secure.

The issue is being raised just weeks after it emerged a doctor accused of looking up confidential health information on the Prime Minister, the First Minister, and a series of other high-profile Scots will not be prosecuted.

In Scotland, a patient’s full medical record can currently be accessed only via computers at the GP practice where they are registered.

A few details, however, known as the emergency care summary, are available to authorised staff across NHS Scotland, including NHS 24 nurses and A&E departments. This covers any prescriptions the patient is taking and any allergic reactions to drugs.

Click the link to find out more about Doctors fear over confidential medical records

Tensions and Paradoxes in Electronic Patient Record Research: A Systematic Literature Review Using the Meta-narrative Method

Trisha Greenhalgh, Henry W.W. Potts, Geoff Wong, Pippa Bark, and Deborah Swinglehurst

University College London

Context: The extensive research literature on electronic patient records (EPRs) presents challenges to systematic reviewers because it covers multiple research traditions with different underlying philosophical assumptions and methodological approaches.

Methods: Using the meta-narrative method and searching beyond the Medline-indexed literature, this review used “conflicting” findings to address higher-order questions about how researchers had differently conceptualized and studied the EPR and its implementation.

Findings: Twenty-four previous systematic reviews and ninety-four further primary studies were considered. Key tensions in the literature centered on (1) the EPR (“container” or “itinerary”); (2) the EPR user (“information-processer” or “member of socio-technical network”); (3) organizational context (“the setting within which the EPR is implemented” or “the EPR-in-use”); (4) clinical work (“decision making” or “situated practice”); (5) the process of change (“the logic of determinism” or “the logic of opposition”); (6) implementation success (“objectively defined” or “socially negotiated”); and (7) complexity and scale (“the bigger the better” or “small is beautiful”).

Conclusions: The findings suggest that EPR use will always require human input to recontextualize knowledge; that even though secondary work (audit, research, billing) may be made more efficient by the EPR, primary clinical work may be made less efficient; that paper may offer a unique degree of ecological flexibility; and that smaller EPR systems may sometimes be more efficient and effective than larger ones. We suggest an agenda for further research.

Keywords: Systematic review, electronic patient records, innovation.

Read the full paper about Electronic Patient Record Research

People can opt out of the system

Millions of patient records are to go online in London after long delays to an NHS IT upgrade in the city.

The £12bn government programme has been beset with problems and is four years behind schedule.

The records, which contain details of patient medications and allergies, will go live on Thursday following pilot studies across England.

It is hoped the system will allow data to be shared more easily. The scheme will also be rolled out across England.

The summary care record is designed to securely hold details of medications, allergies, adverse reactions and other key health information.

It is based on a patient’s GP record but is designed so any doctor treating a patient can add to it.

Read more about London Medical records going on line

Galway Clinic digitises and archives paper records in drive to electronic healthcare record

The Galway Clinic, a 126-bed hospital in the West of Ireland, is implementing a data archiving and management solution from BridgeHead Software to support its drive to create a completely electronic healthcare record.

The state-of-the-art medical facility, which provides acute and secondary care services, plans to use BridgeHead’s BH FileStore archiving software for the long-term storage and retrieval of scanned patient documents. The documents are being digitised using dedicated software from healthcare information systems provider, MEDITECH.

“Our data is growing exponentially as we strive to achieve a totally paperless environment,” said Richard Murdock, network administrator at The Galway Clinic. “And now our data will grow even faster with our current plans to digitise all paper documents relating to patients. So it’s crucial to put in place a cost-effective, long-term data storage and access strategy and BH FileStore’s archiving and retrieval facilities will play an essential role in this.”

Read more about this drive to go paperless here

The TRAK community facility will help nurses access more up-to-date files on patients, and allow them to better plan what care is required for them. It is expected the system, which is being used across East Lothian, will be used across the whole health board area by next year.

Evening News (final edition) p.7