EMIS becomes first GP supplier to commit to CUI

Primary care systems supplier EMIS is to become the first major clinical software vendor to the health service to incorporate elements of the new NHS Common User Interface (CUI), developed by Microsoft on behalf of Connecting for Health, into its software.

EMIS revealed to EHI Primary Care last week that it will incorporate components of CUI into its new EMIS Web product with work already underway and the first elements being seen in user upgrades within months.

Ironically EMIS is the largest clinical software supplier to the NHS not within  National Programme for IT, yet is the largest health software supplier to yet commit to the CfH project to develop a standard user interface for NHS staff. 

InPractice Systems (INPS), another leading GP systems provider, is also understood to be working with Microsoft on CUI, beginning by looking at how it might incorporate design guidance. The involvement of both EMIS and IPS indicates that CUI may make most headway initially in primary care, historically the most computerised segment of the health service.

The NHS CUI project is intended by CfH to provide a standard user interface for clinicians using different clinical systems across the health service. Neither of the main acute clinical suppliers within NPfIT contracts – iSoft or Cerner – have yet publicly committed to the project.

EMIS, which provides primary care information systems to almost 50% of English GPs told EHI Primary Care that it will begin by incorporating CUI components including the standard Patient Identification Panel and standard time date format.

Sean Riddell managing director of EMIS told E-Health Insider Primary Care that backing the £40m NHS CUI project, led by CfH and Microsoft, "entirely fits with our commitment to interoperability".

Dr Shaun O’Hanlon, EMIS’s clinical design director said: "We are reviewing our current application EMIS Web against the CUI design guide and working out how to implement design guidance."

He added: "Our initial assumption was that CUI was about Microsoft trying to take over, but we quickly came to see it as providing the tools we need to make systems easier to use."

He said that in the long term the vision was of a single user interface across the NHS. "This will probably not be completely standard but have standard elements so that if you want to look at a patient’s details you’ll be looking at a standard screen."

Dr O’Hanlon said removing the need for every supplier to painstakingly develop their own basic UI components would enable them to focus on "providing knowledge, clinical tools and databases".

Illustrating the value of the CUI Design Guide and associated Toolkit Dr O’Hanlon said that it could be difficult for suppliers to focus consistently on the simplest things such as standard dates and times. "Displaying dates inconsistently can lead to patient safety issues," he stressed.

"The Toolkit is Microsoft providing us with a set of components we can drop into our applications," said Dr O’Hanlon. He explained that components such as the Patient ID Panel had been adapted for a primary care user and Microsoft developers had worked at EMIS’s offices "learning how we put components in and develop software".

O’Hanlon concluded: "In the future I do see us having a single core UI for different clinical applications across the NHS."

He said this would ultimately also apply to patient views of records: "In the long term this will also be provided to patient views of records as well. Microsoft have got unprecedented experience in user interfaces."

Microsoft says that other clinical suppliers currently working with them on CUI include BT on its spine applications, System C, Axis Technologies, Learning Clinic and INPS.