These reports are written on the fly during the conference and posted on the
web on a daily(ish) basis.
The first session I attended on Tuesday was an 08.00 breakfast session on
XML in healthcare - which was the most popular session I've attended so far
!!
It was organised by isoft (which seems to be a Microsoft company), who provided
a very polished series of presentations illustrated by a humorous video case
study.
The potential of XML to enable the transfer of information in a usable format
from one technological system to another seems to have grown massively overt
the last couple of years, and is now being applied in the healthcare setting.
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My second session chaired by Muir Gray was entitled:
NeLH: Information standards and knowledge management in a modern health
service
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The first speaker was Colin Gordon who spoke specifically about NeLH
developments and illustrated the connections between NeLH and National Service
Frameworks (NSF) by reference to the Coronary Heart Disease zone. The
importance of making guideline rapidly available and systematically linking
these to navigation tools was put in a wider context of eGIF, MESH/Clinical
Terms V3 & Dublin Core. The possible importance of HL7 was also touched on,
with Targets for eGovernment, Interoperability and Metadata. |
| The second speaker was John Barras (an e envoy from the cabinet
office) who described the eGIF (Government Information Framework) as setting
the architecture across all public sector bodies with the adoption of WWW
standards & XML for all government systems. |
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The next speaker was Martin Whittaker (Director of HL7 UK) he
compared HL7 Versions 2&3 and CEN European standards and their readiness
and ability to deliver the messaging standards required in healthcare - not
just for administrative data but in the future for clinical data. |
| Paul Woodman then set out the Scottish NHS experience,
particularly focussing on XML. The Scottish system being different to UK having
achieved all GP & hospital trusts being connected to one network - again
this was placed in a context of the eGIF & the new Government Gateway |
| The final speaker was Jeremy Thorp (NHS Information Policy Unit) who
described the strategic context for the NeLH, identifying the stakeholders
& drivers to take this work forward. |
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The next session I attended was organised by the
BCS Nursing Specialist Group and
included an agenda to look at Health Informatics research in a national and
international context. The session was chaired by Patti Brennan and
started with several speakers & was followed by more general
discussion.
Further information about the papers in this session can be obtained from:
http://learn.to/nurseinharrogate
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The first speaker was Franca Mongiardi (LIS Project Manager N.
Cumbria) who highlighted issues about getting research into clinical practice.
These included;
- The volume of research
- Critical appraisal skills
- agreeing and deciding on the evidence needed & research to be
implemented.
She saw Information for Health as helping with both the infrastructure and
people issues. |
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The second speaker was Paula Procter (Reader in Health Informatics,
University of Sheffield), who addressed issues related to IT skills,
professional information management and the development of an accepted
healthcare Informatics. She questioned the research base for the introduction
of the ECDL in the NHS, and argued that we should be looking at information
maps for clinical practice, and identifying information links across
disciplines for direct and distant care. She identified a Health Delivery
Quadrant
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PLACE |
T
I
M
E |
Same Place
Same Time
Face to Face |
Different Place
Same Time
Video Conferencing |
Same Place
Different Time
Messaging |
Different Place
Different Time
Web Based |
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| Sharon Fennell & Jackie Walker from Wakefield and Pontefract
Community Heealth NHS Trust then presented the work being undertaken by their
Health informatics Development Team emphasising the importance of keeping a
clinical focus. |
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The final speaker was Peter Murray who gave an
international dimesion by describing the work of various groups including
IMIA-NI |
| The question and answer session was lively and
covered the involvement of clinicans in LIS projects, Nursing informatics as
opposed to multidisciplinary approaches and team working. |
I then had some lunch while attending the first meeting of the technical group
for the Nursing and allied health professions portals of the NeLH |
| In the afternoon I then attended anoother session related to NeLH, NHS
Direct and the eLearning startegy, led by Veronica Fraser, and with
contributions from Bob Gann and Chris Pearson. These coovered
much of the same ground as the earlier session in the day but added further
information about current and future developments including work on improved
naigation and searching and the use of information kiosks and digital TV. The
strategy for eLearing "learning Togethr in a kmodern NHS is still at an
early stage and despite a flashy video (still with typographic errors) poorly
thought through. |
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