IBM and Carefx form partnership

IBM has announced a partnership with Carefx to develop a portal solution to enable NHS trusts to provide clinicians with real-time access to patient data from multiple back-end systems.

The portal solution is based on a combination of Carefx’ Fusionfx portal and IBM Websphere technologies. It will bring together data from disparate applications to offer a real-time view of patients.

Robert Tickell, IBM UK healthcare business leader, told eHealth Insider: “The data is provided in real time to clinicians, there is no need for a separate database.”

He added: “The key message the clinical community is giving us is that they want to see everything about a patient, in a space where the data is all up-to-date.”

Pilot clinical portal implementations have already been completed at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust.

West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust is also using the solution for its own clinical portal for clinicians at its three hospitals: Watford General; St Albans City; and Hemel Hempstead.

Using the portal, a doctor from West Hertfordshire can access information on a specific patient without opening up multiple applications or relying on paper notes.

This makes it easier for clinicians to use IT resources, as well as making them more efficient in their interactions with patients.

“We are excited to join IBM in announcing that there are hospitals throughout the UK who are benefitting from joint solutions offered by IBM and Carefx,” said Wayne Parslow, executive vice-president and general manager EMEA for Carefx.

Parslow said that IBM and Carefx together had the tools to build proven, market tested solutions to meet “the increasingly challenging and large-scale interoperability needs seen in the NHS”.

IBM and Carefx will work closely with health care application providers and systems integrators to deliver clinical portals to NHS trusts across the UK.

The IBM and Carefx portal solution is built on the IBM Health Integration Framework, an integrated platform for healthcare operations based on industry standards, using elements of IBM’s entire software portfolio.

Data is delivered from the individual applications that hold patient information based on open standards and to meet existing information governance and security requirements.