I second the notion of importance and relevance. It's what you're in for if you work in the medical field with software, proprietary, Open Source or otherwise. Resistence comes on many levels and in many ways at times.
Richard Schilling
Webmaster / Web Integration Programmer
Affiliated Health Services
Mount Vernon, WA USA
http://www.affiliatedhealth.org
phone: 360.856.7129
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John S. Gage [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 6:03 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: BMJ: NHS misses target for introducing electronic records
>
>
> Very important posting. Thanks very much,
> John
>
> At 04:25 AM 4/12/02, you wrote:
> >Looks like it's more complex than they first thought:
> >
> >"..Misguided decision to build expensive bespoke systems ..."
> >
> >
> >:-)
> >----------------- British Medical Journal
> >http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7342/870/b
> >[Free-registration Required]
> >
> >BMJ 2002;324:870 ( 13 April )
> >
> >News roundup
> >
> >NHS misses target for introducing electronic records
> >
> >Katherine Burke London
> >
> >The NHS has completely missed last month's target to introduce
> >electronic patient records across a third of acute
> >hospitals-much as
> >the medical profession had predicted. Department of Health
> >officials
> >admitted this month that only 3% of acute hospitals had
> >introduced
> >level 3 electronic patient records by 31 March, compared with
> >the target
> >of 35% set in its 1998 information
> >technology (IT) strategy, Information for Health.
> >
> >No results have been released for the other seven targets for
> >March set
> >in the 1998 strategy, suggesting that
> >they are also showing disappointing progress.
> >
> >A level 3 electronic patient record for a single episode of
> >care would
> >cover four areas: prescribing details, tests
> >and procedures ordered, test results, and the "integrated care
> >pathway"-to project manage the patient's care. A
> >department spokeswoman admitted that there have been "problems
> >implementing electronic records" but claimed
> >that the targets are part of a long term strategy to implement
> >electronic records across the NHS by 2005. "The
> >targets have always been about setting a direction of travel,
> >raising
> >the priority of key areas or applications for IT
> >and measuring progress [locally]," she said.
> >
> >The department implied that the NHS plan, national health
> >reforms, and
> >the growth of clinical networks had
> >affected progress on electronic patient records, but that moves
> >will
> >gather speed.
> >
> >Doctors with an interest in informatics have long been
> >expecting the
> >strategy to unravel, after politicians reworked
> >the original document, drafted by Frank Burns, chief executive
> >of the
> >Wirral Hospital NHS Trust.
> >
> >Dr Paul Cundy, chairman of the information management and
> >technology
> >subcommittee of the BMA's general
> >practitioner committee, claimed that the NHS's IT strategy was
> >doomed
> >because of the government's failure to
> >ringfence money properly, its misguided decision to build
> >expensive
> >bespoke systems rather than adapting
> >off-the-shelf software, and confusion over accountability.
> >
> >"GPs have always been more computerised than secondary care.
> >The fact
> >that we can't exchange results is a
> >continuing source of frustration for us," said Dr Cundy.
> >"They've spent
> >millions of pounds on new systems,
> >which-by the time they are delivered-are obsolete and don't
> >work."
> >
> >Another GP with informatics expertise, Dr Grant Kelly, who
> >chairs the
> >BMA's overall committee on IT, believes that
> >the targets were always overambitious and politically
> >motivated. He
> >claimed that the government has failed to put
> >its money where its mouth is and is focusing on elaborate IT
> >systems
> >that will sound good on paper rather than
> >deliver practical, useful solutions at a fraction of the price.
> >
> >Instead of investing in a centralised appointment booking
> >system, Dr
> >Kelly thinks the NHS should adopt a
> >standard way for computers to exchange information so that GPs
> >can refer
> >patients electronically for hospital
> >appointments.
> >
> >Under such a system a GP would fill in an electronic form that
> >would be
> >sent to hospital departments in a secure
> >format and the booking would be made automatically. This would
> >save on
> >administrative staff time and waiting
> >times.
> >
> >Dr Kelly has also written to health minister Lord Hunt to press
> >for the
> >Read code system of clinical terms to be
> >improved. "It doesn't matter what information you exchange if
> >no one's
> >going to trust it," said Dr Kelly. He claimed
> >that the department's response had been encouraging.
> >
> >The 1998 Information for Health strategy laid out the following
> >eight
> >targets to be achieved by April 2002:
> >
> >� 35% of all acute hospitals to have implemented a level 3
> >electronic
> >patient record system
> >
> >� 25% of health authorities to have made substantial progress
> >towards
> >integrated primary care and community
> >electronic patient records
> >
> >� All parts of England to use NHSnet for appointment booking,
> >referrals,
> >discharge, and radiology and laboratory
> >requests and results
> >
> >� Community prescribing with electronic links to GPs and the
> >Prescription Pricing Authority
> >
> >� Telemedicine and telecare options to be considered routinely
> >in all
> >health improvement programmes
> >
> >� A national electronic library for health, accessible through
> >intranets
> >in all NHS organisations
> >
> >� Information strategies to underpin completed national service
> >frameworks
> >
> >� Initial electronic heath records running at demonstrator
> >sites.
>
