Data Quality

Time for Zero-Tolerance

I heard the blindingly obvious statement at the recent Intellect stream of BCS HC2013 Conference in Birmingham that “If you give people software that makes their life easier then adoption is not a problem” Given the clear truth of this statement, I wonder why so many “designing” and procuring NHS IT Systems manage to deliver…

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NHS-Life Sciences Partnership

“The NHS should be “opened up” to private healthcare firms under plans which include sharing anonymous patient data, David Cameron is due to announce” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16026827 25 years ago I launched AAH Meditel. My plan was to give GPs free computers in return for anonymised patient data, which I planned to sell, primarily for life-sciences research.…

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In Summary

Record summaries can play an important role in the facilitation of clinical communication, but only with careful thought, which is often lacking, as illustrated by the sad tale of the English Summary Care Record (SCR) and the happier tale of the Scottish Emergency Care Summary. The first thing to understand about a “summary record” is…

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Secondary Uses of Data – A Poachers Tale

Early in my career in health informatics I had plans to make myself fabulously rich by selling pseudonymised patient data from GP for a range of secondary purposes. I managed to spend £15 million of my backers money giving away 1000 GP systems and established a database of 6 million patients records it all ended…

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Beyond the Hawking Horizon

The idea that a single shared electronic health record (SSEHR) operating over a wide geography serving many care settings and diverse professional groups is a good idea is one that has some currency in the NHS. However, evidence seems to be growing that this approach does not lead to more effective care and communication and…

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