Building the foundations for better healthcare in Wales
As part of the shift from an institution-centred model to a person-based
model of healthcare, the NHS in Wales is planning a set of new nationwide
information services. Dr Gwyn Thomas, Director of Informing
Healthcare, explains how the technical and information architecture is being
shaped and progress to date.
ABSTRACT The mission of Informing Healthcare (IHC) is to create the
technical and information infrastructure to help modernise and improve
patient-care services for the people of Wales. The individual healthcare
record — focused around the patient rather than institutions and underpinned
by an all-Wales technical architecture — is a key element and will make a
shared view of clinical care available across organisational boundaries,
though, by design, it will not be all encompassing.
The approach to implementation is incremental and emphasises the delivery
of benefits for patients. Providing patients with access to their own
records is also important, and the current pilot of My Health Online in
maternity services provides a preview of its future possibilities, and new
research provides valuable insight into patient needs, interests and access
to ICT. Active stakeholder engagement is crucial to success, and
considerable emphasis is being placed on the participation of clinicians and
other NHS Wales representatives in agreeing key design principles of the
national technical architecture. IHC’s National Architecture Design Board
plays a major role in technical and clinical governance of the Programme.
The IHC is actively seeking international comparators, and an expert
International Advisory Group is being created that will attend a
benchmarking conference later this year. Br J Healthcare Comput Info
Manage 2006; 23(6): 9–12. |
