HC05 report, blog & name

The Healthcare Computing conference is over for another year. I had an interesting if tiring time!

You can see some of my daily(ish) reports and activity on the blog.

Perhaps the most intesting bit for me was hearing Richard Granger announce the new name for the National Programe for IT (NPfIT) "Connecting for health" & a few minutes later typing this into a search engine and finding the US site which already has the name with a "service mark". This story was then subsequently picked up by some of the journalists & I'm still waiting to hear if that name is still to be used or will be changed by 1st April!

RCN: Information needs of nurses and other health professionals

RCN: News & Press article: Survey results into the information needs of nurses and other health professionals

This report describes the key results from the information needs analysis conducted by RCN Library and Information Services based on 1715 completed questionnaires.

Some of the conclusions from the report are:

• Nurses with best access to information are more likely to change practice as a result of research, which is likely to lead to improved patient care
• Employers’ attitudes are crucial
• Significant numbers are still reporting that they have no or limited access to computers at work
• Nurses in the independent or community sectors are more likely to report that they have less access to information
• Local and regional differences are reported in accessing information and the internet
• There is a high demand for value added services to help busy nurses find up to date, good quality, relevant evidence in manageable amounts
• Respondents want a hybrid service – physical and electronic libraries, librarians as well as online services.
• There is a very high demand for more information skills training.

The Internet and Clinical Trials: Background, Online Resources, Examples and Issues

The Internet and Clinical Trials: Background, Online Resources, Examples and Issues

This article by James Paul, Rachael Seib and Todd Prescott in the Journal of Medical Internet Research shows parrallels in the development of the Internet and clinical trials and suggests how the Internet can be used for data sharing in large multicentre trails.

Yorkshire conferences

The Education Steps think tank has now finished (photo of participants below) & preparation is now underway for HC05 for which I will be doing daily(ish) reports and the blog.