Healthcare IT pros call for standards
Kable
Published: 09 Oct 2008 15:42 BST
NHS IT needs a greater emphasis on standards rather than standardisation, according to its representative body.
The Association for Informatics Professionals in Health and Social Care (Assist) has said a standards-based approach would support the successful implementation of IT while opening up the market to new entrants.
This would need the support of a regulatory framework to ensure all NHS institutions implement IT systems that conform to the standards.
Assist has made the recommendation as part of its submission to the Conservative Party's review of NHS IT. The position is at odds with the NHS's National Programme for IT's (NPfIT) initial emphasis on the standardisation of systems.
The submission document acknowledges that the shift in emphasis has already begun, and declares its support for the change. "We see the future in terms of integration of information from interoperable systems with common information, technical messaging and other IT standards," it says.
The document also urges a move away from a "big bang" implementation of highly sophisticated solutions towards a focus on "roadmaps towards readiness", and greater engagement with health-service staff.
Among the other recommendations, Assist says efforts should be made to encourage more small and medium-sized companies to play a part in the market. NPfIT's early emphasis on standardisation relied on larger companies and prompted many smaller firms to retreat from the NHS.
It also says there should be:
- More integrated policy planning at national and local levels
- Investment in an informatics health and research programme
- An avoidance of structural change, 'standalone' data demands and insular systems development
- Investment in developing informatics skills
The document does, however, express support for some of the achievements in NHS IT, including picture-archiving systems, electronic appointment-booking systems and primary-care computing.
It also suggests criticisms have sometimes been unfair, with IT often used as a scapegoat for more fundamental failures in service policy and planning, and that the detractors have been prone to draw on perceptions rather than facts. It also makes an implied criticism of Conservative leader David Cameron's complaints about an "NHS supercomputer", describing the use of this phrase as "short-sighted scaremongering".
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