News in brief
Digital healthcare boosted with £78m fund: Health and social care providers across the country will benefit from a £78m cash boost this year to invest in technology and help them move from paper-based clinical records to integrated digital care records, reported Integrated Care Today. NHS trusts and Local Authorities will have access to £43m of Integrated Digital Care funding to put in place electronic information systems. Approval has also been granted for the second tranche of the Nursing Technology Fund which makes £35m available to trusts, health charities and community health providers to spend on digital services that will support nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants in their work and help them release time to care. Beverley Bryant, director of strategic systems and technology at NHS England, said: “We are committed to a digital strategy to help transform health services through technology and put patients in control of their care and welcome the latest investment in the Integrated Digital Care fund which will help to digitise and integrate patient information across health and social care, enabling safer, more joined up services.” A full list of recipients of the Nursing Technology Fund is available on NHS England’s website.
NHS business plan highlights IT goals: Digital inclusion and patient access to health records are among NHS England’s main IT aims for the next 12 months, according to its new business plan. The NHS England Business Plan 2015/16, published last week, is one of the first major steps in advancing the NHS Five Year Forward View, reported eHealth Insider. The plan focuses on ten priorities for 2015/16, including whole system change for future clinical and financial sustainability. Regarding IT and data, the closest commitment for NHS England is to publish team or unit-level measures for at least three clinical areas on MyNHS from September 2015. MyNHS is part of the NHS Choices website, launched last autumn to allow people to compare the performance of their local NHS hospital, their care services and their local authority. Further changes to NHS Choices are also in the works and by March 2016, NHS England says an additional 150,000 people will be trained in digital skills as part of the Widening Digital Participation partnership between NHS England and the Tinder Foundation.
Cameron promises ‘seven-day NHS’ by 2020: All hospitals in England will provide “a truly seven-day NHS” by 2020 under a future Conservative government, David Cameron has said. At the party’s spring forum, Cameron said that more hospitals must provide top-level treatment at the weekend, starting with emergency care, reported the BBC. In a wide-ranging speech, he said his party’s message to various sections of the population was: “We’re with you.” Labour said Tory plans for “extreme” spending cuts threatened the NHS. It has put the health service at the forefront of its own election campaign, with leader Ed Miliband promising on Friday to cap the amount of profit private firms can make from the NHS in England. At weekends, Cameron said some resources were not up and running at weekends. “The key decision-makers aren’t always there. With a future Conservative government, we would have a truly seven-day NHS.”
Care system gets ‘biggest shake-up in 60 years’: Major changes to the care system in England are being introduced in what is being dubbed the biggest shake-up for 60 years, reported the BBC. The Care Act 2014 includes rights for those receiving care and those who provide it to their loved ones. It includes standards for access to services from care homes to help in the home for tasks such as washing and dressing. Meanwhile, NHS and care budgets are being merged in Scotland. The Public Bodies (Joint Working) Act has been described as the most substantial reform north of the border for a generation. It effectively forces councils and the NHS to work together to provide more streamlined services. That aim is also a major topic of debate in England in the election campaign with the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, UKIP and Greens all having plans for greater integration.
Two million for innovative solutions to help tackle kidney disease: Six winners will receive a share of over £2m as part of a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition aimed at developing cutting-edge technology solutions to help kidney patients, reported Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Funded by the Department of Health and managed by the National Institute for Health Research Healthcare Technology Co-operative Devices for Dignity (D4D), this will give small businesses the opportunity to develop ideas and technologies that could prevent kidney disease, allow earlier diagnosis, and give patients with kidney failure greater independence, enabling treatment closer to home. Over the next 12-24 months the winners will develop solutions to address some of the most pressing issues in kidney care. Amongst the winners is Patientrack, an automated information technology system that calculates the risk of acute kidney injury and detects and alerts clinical teams of acute kidney injury in patients.
Humber debates Lorenzo future: Financial pressures could cause Humber NHS Foundation Trust to move to a ‘best of breed’ approach with its clinical IT systems when its national contract for the Lorenzo electronic patient record system expires, reported eHealth Insider. The trust, which provides mental health and community services to the populations in Hull and the East Riding, currently uses CSC’s Lorenzo patient administration system as well as TPP’s SystmOne for community health with contracts signed under the National Programme for IT. Humber’s current, centrally funded contract with CSC is set to expire in July 2016 – the same time as the end of the trust’s contract for SystmOne. In April last year, Humber said it was looking at potential alternatives for Lorenzo ahead of the contracts’ expiry dates. According to a board update on the trust’s informatics strategy last month, financial pressures will be among the biggest drivers in determining how Humber will replace its clinical systems. “The cost and resources to procure a single system may not be affordable in the trust’s current financial position,” the papers say.
Trust gives smart phones to staff to access records: Central London Community Healthcare Trust has issued 181 smart phones to staff in areas such as physiotherapy, speech and language and occupational therapy after a trial showed multiple benefits, reported Health Service Journal (subscription required). Staff have been able access patient records remotely, order equipment while patients are present, and check emails. A trust report said: “During the evaluation of device usage for clinicians, it was established that 50% of benefits came from clinicians using devices to access the care record.” Three hundred district nurses have also been given smart phones by the trust.
Northern Devon picks RiO for community: Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust has chosen Servelec’s RiO electronic patient record (EPR) system for community health services as part of an £8m investment in a new EPR, reported eHealth Insider. The RiO EPR will replace Northern Devon’s current in-house community system, ComPAS, and will support services in a “flexible way, online and offline”, according to the trust. The EPR is also fully interoperable with the InterSystems TrakCare EPR, which Northern Devon is implementing across inpatient services at North Devon District Hospital and at community hospitals across north, east and central Devon. Once all systems are live, the trust will operate a full EPR across all inpatient, outpatient, acute, community and home-based services. Mike Jones, the trust’s IT director of information management and technology, said: “Our existing IT system which currently supports our acute and community services is nearing the end of its useful life, and our implementation of the new systems is in time for the withdrawal of support for this system by the supplier.”
Apple introduces ResearchKit, giving medical researchers the tools to revolutionise medical studies: Apple has announced ResearchKit, an open source software framework designed for medical and health research, helping doctors and scientists gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants using iPhone apps, reported eHealth News EU Portal. World-class research institutions have already developed apps with ResearchKit for studies on asthma, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. Users decide if they want to participate in a study and how their data is shared. “iOS apps already help millions of customers track and improve their health. With hundreds of millions of iPhones in use around the world, we saw an opportunity for Apple to have an even greater impact by empowering people to participate in and contribute to medical research,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of operations. “ResearchKit gives the scientific community access to a diverse, global population and more ways to collect data than ever before.”
South Central Ambulance first for SCR: The South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust will roll out mobile access to the NHS Summary Care Record (SCR) for ambulance crews, as part of the implementation of its Ortivus electronic patient record system (EPR). South Central says it will be the first ambulance trust in England to give paramedics electronic access to the SCR, ensuring they have constant access to real-time patient information at the scene. Georgie Cole, a senior project manager at South Central, told eHealth Insider that the trust spent a significant amount of time working with the Swedish EPR supplier on software configuration. She said the SCR functionality, which is still being tested, will make it easier for paramedics to discover a patient’s medications or allergies, as well as other relevant information. The service is being introduced on a vehicle by vehicle roll out basis which is due to be finished in in early 2015.
King’s College Hospital targets healthcare app innovation: King’s College Hospital (KCH) has developed a healthcare app for rheumatology patients as part of a wider strategy to potentially expand the number of services offered through mobile devices, including potential focuses on appointment booking and patient feedback, reported Government Computing. Set to formally launch in April, the new app has been designed as a means of offering patients suffering with rheumatoid arthritis and related conditions greater control in managing their care by allowing for the provision of personal data through a chosen mobile device, rather than in person. KCH’s Dr James Galloway said the service, already available through app stores, was reflective of a small but emerging take up among patients of mobile health tools, which were proving to be effective for people suffering from rheumatism. The new app has been developed as part of collaboration with Ampersand Mobile that commenced last October in order to trial innovative solutions for healthcare. Development of the project, led by Dr Heidi Lempp, was funded through a £37,231 grant provided by the South London Membership Council’s Innovation, Diffusion and Excellence Awards in Healthcare Education and Training.
GPs set to screen millions more for dementia under ‘significant’ expansion of enhanced service: Millions more patients are set to be caught up in the Government’s dementia diagnosis drive, under a major extension of the dementia enhanced screening (DES) that widens the target groups considered to be at high risk for the condition, reported Pulse. Under the new specification for the dementia DES for 2015/16, GPs will be tasked with offering an opportunistic memory assessment to two new groups of patients – those aged over 60 who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease and those over 60 who have been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The change means millions more patients could be targeted under the scheme but GP leaders said the decision to expand the target groups for screening would potentially harm patients, increasing the risk of misdiagnosis and diverting precious resources from patients most at need at a time when GP practices and memory services are already over-stretched.
Opinion:
How open source can bring NHS IT back to the future
One year on from announcing that Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust had signed a contract with an option to implement the UK’s first open source electronic patient record (EPR), Malcolm Senior, the trust’s director of informatics, discusses the prospects of open source in the National Health Service.
“As a taxpayer and an NHS employee I realise that every penny is precious. Healthier lifestyles and better drugs means our population lives longer, and we do not have sufficient funding to help manage long-term complex conditions. We either need more investment, or have to make better use of current resources.
“IT is just one area of healthcare that needs more money. What can we do as an IT department to overcome this challenge? Think outside the box. PAS systems from the mid-90s worked for a fraction of the cost compared with today’s market. They were affordable systems that delivered results. How can we achieve this now?
“I accept it [open source] is a different option. But isn’t the definition of madness doing the same thing and expecting different results? Why not look at a new way of providing trusts with a greater level of ownership and control over the software they use?
“Open source can also provide trusts with opportunities to collaborate without fear that their efforts would be commercially exploited. It encourages the sharing of ideas. It fosters the development of new, customer-driven functionality, and – with the right governance – can help ensure the code is safe to use. I now sit on a board of an openMAXIMS Community of Interest Company (CIC) which was set up to provide this type of governance and support. Using elements of IMS MAXIMS software, we can now provide the same level of assurances as with a proprietary vendor.”
Another view: of federation
GP Neil Paul is worried that time is nearly up for general practice as we have known it. It’s time to federate, and that will mean thinking IT.
“For some time, august bodies have been trying to warn general practice that it will need to change. Most have been talking about federating. We have also been thinking about other things we can do; centralised procurement and purchasing spring to mind. I’ve been thinking about our IT strategy and my thoughts are splitting into what I might call the front-of- house strategy and the back-of-house one.
“Front-of-house is about delivering services to patients. Key ideas for our federation are to improve access to patients and to reduce the variability between practices; getting people to work together to common protocols and workflows while maintaining individual identities and flavours is the goal.
“We have a bid in for the Wave 2 PM Challenge fund – I’ve no idea if we will get it – we might hear any day. But our underlying idea is to offer services mornings, evenings and at weekends in a hub and spoke arrangement.
“Of course, for this to work we need what I’m calling the “Martini principle”. This is the need for any patient to be seen at any location, by any clinician, at any time across the whole federation.
“Now I’ve set the scene, next time I’ll go into more detail about my proposed strategy.”
We can’t just ‘do the same again’ to make £22bn of NHS efficiencies
NHS providers are ready to play their part in a “stretching challenge” but they require honesty, co-design and unprecedented leadership support if £22bn of NHS efficiencies are to be achieved, Chris Hopson writes in Health Service Journal (subscription required).
The chief executive of NHS Providers says three things are needed. This includes, “honesty and realism about what really is deliverable rather than plans that, as if by magic, add up to the amount required but are actually undeliverable, passing risk to the NHS frontline and patients.
“There was a call for “a recognition that many efficiencies can only be delivered at local level and that delivering £22bn in a completely new way requires full co-design between national and local, right from the start.”
And, he says, providers require, “acceptance that local delivery of such a stretching task will require unprecedented levels of support from NHS leaders and realism about how this task is then balanced against the other requirements of providing outstanding patient care that meets performance targets and moving to new models of care.”
Blog
In this week’s blog Chris Marsom asks “whether patient data from smart phone apps and wearable healthcare technology is undermining doctors.”
