Healthcare IT industry news in brief

This month’s round up includes: a new site for the NHS and SMEs on working together, a decision tool for pharmacists looking to access the NHS Summary Care Record.

Website encourages NHS and SMEs to work together

A website has been set up to help small and medium sized enterprises to work with the NHS. The site, supported by the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, and with a starter body of SMEs drawn together by ZPB Associates – a marketing and communications company focused on healthcare – sets out to present practical advice for SMEs who want to work with the health service, and for NHS boards and managers who want to adopt their technology solutions. It also runs case studies on where this has been done successfully.  

Oliver Smith, director of strategy and innovation at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, said: “It is obvious that digital technology has huge potential to improve the NHS, but just because it is obvious doesn’t mean it will happen easily. We hope that we can accelerate change, giving the NHS and SMEs practical tips on bringing new ideas to life.”

Hacking Health 2016 event in Norwich

A health hackathon will be held in Norwich on 12 March 2016 at The Centrum. Supported by Norwich City Council, The University of East Anglia and Norwich Research Park, the 12-hour, collaborative event will aim to generate novel ideas to solve health and wellbeing problems, focusing on dementia and sugar-related obesity among children. The winner will get a cash prize and the opportunity to present their idea at the Doctors 2.0 and You conference in Paris.

RPS provides a ‘decision tool’ for pharmacists accessing SCRs

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has produced a decision tool for community pharmacists as a guide to accessing a patient’s NHS Summary Care Record. Pharmacists have to prove compliance with a number of regulations governing access to and use of the information before being allowed to enrol. The RPS’ decision tool includes a decision making matrix, which covers the governance requirements for accessing a patient’s SCR, plus potential scenarios where there may be a professional, clinical need to do so.

Deployments

Walsall invests in Chemocare

Walsall Manor Hospital is introducing the specialist e-prescribing system, ChemoCare. The CIS Oncology system will be piloted for six weeks and then rolled out to consultants in oncology. Consultants, chemotherapy nurses and the pharmacy department will be able to follow an audit trail of prescription additions, deletions and changes by all staff members. ChemoCare will interface with the trust’s Lorenzo electronic patient and has a feed from its pathology system, WinPath.

Camden mental health trust sends GP letters electronically

Thirty-seven services based over 12 sites at Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust are now using Docman Hub to send letters electronically to 94 GP practices in Camden, Islington, Enfield and Barnet. Letters are instantly delivered, so less staff time is spent on administration, postage is significantly reduced and a full audit trail allows each document to be tracked and reported on. The trust first used Docman Hub in September 2011, and is now sending 2,000 documents this way each month.

Research

New research into patient feedback in Manchester

A joint research project between The University of Manchester, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust has been set up to improve patient feedback. The two-year, £500,000 project will work with 80 patients and carers to find out what sort of feedback they would like to give and with computer scientists to see how it can be analysed quickly and effectively and presented back to staff alongside other quality and safety information.