HC 2004 Healthcare Computing Conference Harrogate 22-24 March 2004 A personal review by Rod Ward

These reports are written on the fly during the conference and posted on the web on a daily(ish) basis, as there are 5 concurrent themes I can not attend all sessions so these comments are based on my own experiences and views.

The official conference web sites is at: http://healthcare-computing.co.uk/

General Comments

This page is an opportunity to give some general comments and questions - but I've been asked to help with a session at 09.00 on Weds am - therefore these questions will be suggested for this session.

Thanks are due to Helen Betts, Helen Sampson & Peter Murray for contributions

Key Messages/questions

Various speakers - The need for evidence based informatics - what measures should be used e.g. mortality & morbidity/quality of life for the individual or organisational actions

Wendy Hall - If we have missing links - have we closed any of these links at this conference?

Interdisciplinarity - multi v uni disciplinary approaches - are we really able to embrace these approaches

The minister announced 2 new appointments Aidon Halligan and John Bacon - what differences do we want these appointments to make?

Richard Vincent - discussing the real world implementation - can we identify benefits for clinicians? will the reward be greater than the effort?

Peter Hutton - Is NCAB doing its job?

Chris Buckingham - what are the issues if we develop HI/decision support tools to help non health professionals with health issues e.g. police, teachers, social workers (Does this change the language paradigms?)

Open Source - will the NPfIT specification conflict with the eEnvoy consultation on the use of open source in the public sector?

Denis Protti - We need to address the long term effects of the Human Genome Project. Is there too much focus on technology rather than people issues - is the npfIT a retrograde step?

General - has the pace of procurement and implementation limited consultation - & will we be able to get clinical involvement at ALL stages? is it all happening TOO QUICKLY

Improved patient monitoring - does it interfere with patient care?

Does the focus on electronic prescribing mean that other aspects of care are neglected?

Life on a grain of Sand - but what happens when you put it in the sandpit.

Quote of the Week

Welcome to Pyong Yang - unatributed to a journalist discussing the number of targets which must be met and the number of NPfIT goons around to enforce them.

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To discuss any of my comments please mail: Rod.Ward@uwe.ac.uk

Page Created: 21.3.04

Last Updated: 24.3.04