Informing Healthcare was set up by the
Welsh Assembly Government
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
in December 2003, to improve healthcare services for people in
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
by introducing modern ways of sharing and using information.
It is one of the key enablers for 'Designed For Life'; the national ten year strategy to deliver better
health and social care
Health and Social Care (often abbreviated to ''HSC'' or ''H&SC'') is a term that relates to services that are available from health and social care providers in the UK. This is a generic term used to refer to the whole of the healthcare provision ...
for Wales.
The central aim of the Informing Healthcare programme is to create a 'world class' technical infrastructure for
NHS Wales
NHS Wales ( cy, GIG (Gwasanaeth Iechyd Gwladol) Cymru) is the publicly-funded healthcare system in Wales, and one of the four systems which make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.
NHS Wales was formed as part of the public ...
that will allow information to be shared securely irrespective of organisational boundaries. It will also provide a consistent set of information and technology services for all organisations in NHS Wales.
Key principles of the programme are based on:
* A national co-ordinated approach
* Incremental change
* Best use of existing infrastructure and systems
* A balance between immediate improvement and investment in future improvements.
Consideration is also given to local priorities, whilst migrating to national designs and solutions.
Delivery of a single
electronic health record
An electronic health record (EHR) is the systematized collection of patient and population electronically stored health information in a digital format. These records can be shared across different health care settings. Records are shared throu ...
for Welsh citizens, improvements to health information systems and development of
health informatics
Health informatics is the field of science and engineering that aims at developing methods and technologies for the acquisition, processing, and study of patient data, which can come from different sources and modalities, such as electronic hea ...
staff are primary goals.
Informing Healthcare is based in
Pencoed
Pencoed ( cy, Pen-coed) is a urbanised community and town in the county borough of Bridgend, Wales. It straddles the M4 motorway north east of Bridgend and is situated on the Ewenny River. At the 2011 census it had a population of around 9,166.
...
, Wales with North Wales offices in
St Asaph
St Asaph (; cy, Llanelwy "church on the Elwy") is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and community (Wales), community on the River Elwy in Denbighshire, Wales. In the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census it had a population of 3,355 ...
. Dr Gwyn Thomas is Informing Healthcare’s Chief Executive Officer.
As part of the reorganisation of NHS Wales, Informing Healthcare has merged with Health Solutions Wales, Business Services Wales and the Primary Care Informatics Programme to create the NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS). The new organisation was formed in April 2010.
Single Record
The vision is for information about individual patients to be available securely where and when it is needed through the Single Electronic Health Record.
A significant cause of current information problems is the lack of an immediately available, accurate patient record, accessible to those who require the information whether care takes place during the day, the evening or at the weekend.
Patient records are held by many professionals in many settings, for example within hospital departments or
pathology labs, either on paper or electronically. While
general practitioners (GPs) hold the most complete record, this information is currently held within the GP practice and is not shared. This approach to record keeping means the whole picture of a patient’s care is fragmented.
The Single Electronic Record is designed to overcome these problems. It does not mean that all information will be held in one place, but provides a view of the patient’s health record derived from many sources. It means that health professionals will be able to access all the information they need, whenever and wherever required. This access will take place in a secure environment, and the information provided is limited to what any given professional needs to know.
The Single Electronic Health Record is built from a number of key components. The Individual Health Record (an electronic “bridge” between GP and urgent care settings), and the Welsh Clinical Portal (a clinical “healthspace” that will allow health professionals to access records, request results and order tests from a variety of sources and labs). These projects will be brought into use incrementally, so developers and clinicians can evaluate and restructure systems when needed.
The eventual goal is the development of an integrated approach to health and social care records, although full integration of these records is still in the developmental stage.
Informing Healthcare has introduced a code of practice to ensure patients are asked before their information can be viewed by a doctor or nurse outside their GP practice. This ensures patients know only the right healthcare professional is accessing the right information.
Informing Healthcare’s security policy been the focus of several positive media reports this year, including a feature by
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, praising its commitment to patient consent and suggesting America can learn from the Welsh approach to computerised health records.
Service Improvement
Informing Healthcare’s commitment to improving IT systems and to support delivery of the single electronic health record means upgrading, changing, or redesigning several existing systems.
For instance, Informing Healthcare is working to deliver new
Laboratory Information Management Systems
A laboratory information management system (LIMS), sometimes referred to as a laboratory information system (LIS) or laboratory management system (LMS), is a software-based solution with features that support a modern laboratory's operations. K ...
(LIMS) to all NHS trusts that will improve pathology services across Wales for the benefit of patients and staff. The new system will replace the 13 computer systems currently operating in the 18 main pathology laboratories in Wales. It will reduce the number of duplicated tests and mean that, no matter where a patient receives care, the results of tests will be readily available.
To help ease the pressure on
radiology
Radiology ( ) is the medical discipline that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide their treatment, within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiat ...
departments a new and improved radiology system, called Radis2, is now in the process of being implemented across Wales, and will eventually lead to an All Wales Radiology Management System. Radis2 replaces the existing RADIS, which is over 18 years old. The new system allows for better integration of systems such as
PACS (picture archiving and communications system) and
digital dictation
A dictation machine is a sound recording device most commonly used to record speech for playback or to be typed into print. It includes digital voice recorders and tape recorder.
The name "Dictaphone" is a trademark of the company of the same n ...
. It also brings an improved database, making it easier to extract management information. All hospitals in Wales will have access to Radis2 by 2010.
In April 2009, the Cancer Information Network System Cymru (Canisc) was established as a national service making it easier for information about treatment to be shared. Designed originally by Cardiff’s
Velindre NHS Trust
Felindre is a rural village in southern Wales. Felindre is located in the far north of Swansea, in the electoral ward of Mawr.
The nearby Lower Lliw Reservoirs are a popular venue for walking and fishing. The water mill in the village was workin ...
in 1991, Informing Healthcare, along with Velindre and Health Solutions Wales delivered Canisc throughout Wales, and management of the new service will be under the Business Services Centre. The new national service allows any number of NHS Wales organisations to record assessments, treatments and follow up care into a common patient casenote, which any healthcare professional caring for that patient can access, thus giving a full picture of each individual's care wherever that person happens to be treated.
Some of Informing Healthcare's other projects include working with
hospital pharmacies
A hospital pharmacy is a
department within a hospital that prepares, compounds, stocks and dispenses inpatient medications. Hospital pharmacies usually stock a larger range of medications, including more specialized and investigational medicatio ...
to improve medicines management; ensuring that patients are correctly identified via a
Master Patient Index
An enterprise master patient index or enterprise-wide master patient index (EMPI) is a patient database used by healthcare organizations to maintain accurate medical data across its various departments. Patients are assigned a unique identifier, so ...
; and procuring the Map of Medicine, a clinical information and service design resource.
Informing Healthcare and Health Informatics
Health informatics
Health informatics is the field of science and engineering that aims at developing methods and technologies for the acquisition, processing, and study of patient data, which can come from different sources and modalities, such as electronic hea ...
professionals are the people work with health IT or information. They cover a wide range of occupations including IT technicians, information analysts, project managers, medical records officers and clinical coders. Together they form a new and rapidly growing class of professional in NHS Wales.
Informing Healthcare is working to ensure Wales attracts new staff to work in this expanding field and to develop them by promoting education, training and professional development through the Welsh Health Informatics Professional Development Programme.
References
External links
{{Health in Wales
Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom
NHS Wales
2003 establishments in Wales