NI does diabetes care with Diamond.net

Northern Ireland’s five Health and Social Care Trusts have implemented web-based diabetes care management systems from Hicom.

The trusts have deployed adult and paediatric diabetes care management systems Diamond.NET and Twinkle.NET, providing a real-time, managed view of a patient’s diabetes care and their future requirements.

Northern Ireland’s health care providers went through a merger in 2007 to create five Health and Social Care Trusts, sparking a review of the existing 12 diabetes databases.

Sean Dooher, regional diabetes ICT Lead, said the review presented a number of options in terms of time frames, costs and meeting the requirements of the organisations. The preferred regional approach was to upgrade to the web-based Diamond.NET.

The trusts also decided to extend the deployment of Twinkle.NET to ensure standardisation of records and improved auditing was being maintained at paediatric level.

“We were looking for a solution to facilitate the standardisation of the recording of diabetes information across the region for both adult and paediatric patients,” said Dooher.

“The implementation of the Hicom solutions, has ensured a strong foundation for this standardisation and has also provided the additional benefit of a singular web-based system that enables those involved in the care of diabetic patients to work using one accessible, web-based diabetes solution within each trust environment.”

The trusts are ultimately looking to develop an interface between the diabetes systems and the Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record.

“Initially, we aim to explore the merging of Twinkle.net and Diamond.NET and will work closely with Hicom to make further improvements,” Dooher added.