On Wednesday 18 May 2011, England’s National Audit Office (NAO) published an update on the ‘National Programme for IT in the NHS’, an £11.4bn project aimed at improving the way the NHS in England handles and uses information. Part of this programme of investment, the delivery of a national broadband network and a system to electronically share x-rays, is almost complete. However, a core component of the Programme, a fully-integrated electronic patient records (EPR) system, is severely delayed.
A project plagued by issues
The original aim for the patient e-records was that they be stored in two parts. A Summary Care Record (SCR) holding key medical information would be available to anyone involved in the treatment of that patient. A more in-depth record, the Detailed Care Record (DCR), containing a full medical history would also be available to the patient’s GP and local community/hospital care settings.
While initial ethical issues with SCRs have been largely overcome, the time and cost of delivering a system to support the DCR have been completely underestimated. With one supplier having left the Programme (Accenture), and another’s contract being terminated (Fujitsu), the initial completion date of 2010 has been pushed back to 2015/16; limited only by other contract cessation dates. This most recent audit states that it is unlikely that even these completion dates will be met.
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Well, kind of...
The Edinburgh Marathon Festival (EMF) 10K race 2011 is now only a memory. But what a memory it is!
Sheer anticipation before the race
I arrived at the EMF hub in Holyrood Park early full of anticipation but dread at the thought of the hilly Edinburgh course and a bit worried that my 5-week training may not be enough to see me through to the finish line.
All around me people of all fitness levels were getting ready for the start, doing warm up exercises, guzzling down whole bottles of Lucozade, chewing on jelly beans and fruit pastes or scoffing bananas. Not to be left out (and also because I hadn’t had breakfast) I ate my own banana and drank a bit of Lucozade to remain hydrated and full of energy.
Little did I know at the time how much I would need the energy.
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A few weeks ago, the MackSense offices witnessed an incredible wave of enthusiasm when it was first suggested that staff enter the 5km and 10km races in the Edinburgh Marathon Festival to raise money for charity.
Those golden days are now mere memories. The prospect of tackling Edinburgh’s life-sapping hills in a road race is a reality too harsh for most normal people. And who could blame them?
But like Pheidippides himself (the ancient Greek originator of the marathon), one MackSense runner is not giving up.
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Healthcare marketing researchers, technology providers and strategists with an eye on the big picture will be interested in a major report just published by Business Insights called Trends in mHealth and Telemedicine.
Researched and written by Emma Séka, founder and director of MackSense, part of the report has been adapted and published in the magazine Clinica and is available online.
It sets out the current obstacles to widespread adoption of emerging technologies like remote monitoring and suggests that mobile health and telemedicine players will need to look beyond the short term costs of infrastructure if they are to take full advantage of the potential offered by this new care model.
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