A review is looking at ways to improve England's National Health Service (NHS) IT, including electronic health records, to achieve a paper-free health and care system by 2020.
IT and patient safety expert Professor Bob Wachter has
launched a review of computer systems across the NHS. The review, ‘Making IT
work: harnessing the power of health IT to improve care in England’, will look
at places where IT has worked well and those areas that need improving. It will
also look at different ways to implement IT in healthcare as the NHS works
towards being paperless by 2020.
“The NHS is one of the world’s largest health and healthcare
systems, and one of its largest employers,” Professor Wachter said. “It’s
essential that information technology across the NHS works well and can perform
the tasks needed to deliver high-quality, safe and efficient care. I am looking
forward to finding out about some of the great work taking place across the NHS
and highlighting areas for improvement.”
See Also: Are EHRs Letting Patients Down?
Jeremy Hunt, Health Minister, announced the review last year and it will report back to government in June
“Improving the standard of care patients receive even further means embracing technology and moving towards a fully digital and paperless NHS,” Hunt said. “NHS staff do incredible work every day and we must give them and patients the most up-to-date technology – this review will tell us where we need to go further."
The review will consider the experiences of clinicians and
trust leaders as well as the current capacity and capability of trusts’ IT
systems. It will be formed of an advisory committee, the National Advisory
Group on Health Information Technology which includes experts and patient
representatives from England, Scotland, Denmark and the U.S..
This will include:
Ann Slee, ePrescribing lead for
Integrated Digital Care Record and Digital Medicines Strategy with NHS.
Julia Adler-Milstein, associate professor at the University
of Michigan.
Tim Kelsey, former national director for patients and
information at NHS England.
Christine Sinsky, a general internist in Dubuque, Iowa, who also serves on the American Medical Association's Advisory Panel on Physician Satisfaction.
'Patient advocate' Dave deBronkart.
Professor Wachter will make his recommendations to the
National Information Board later this year.
Source: NHS
Image Source: NHS
