New BT solution joins up a patient’s care online
BT today announced it has signed agreements with leading suppliers - Harris Corporation, InterSystems and Healthcare Gateway Ltd - to offer interoperability solutions which provide a joined up view of a patient’s care.
Interoperability allows organisations to share information across multiple care services, giving health and social care workers a fuller picture of each individual’s care history and allowing patients to be more involved in their care. This means authorised care workers can securely see alerts about patients who are vulnerable or at risk, or can access A&E attendance records from within a mental health care system. Patients, on the other hand, can access their own records to see test results, schedule appointments or communicate directly with their clinicians.
BT’s solution follows a “connect all” approach, enabling organisations to provide higher quality, safer patient care whilst minimising the costs associated with replacing systems. Subject to information governance restrictions, users can access information held about a patient across various IT systems in a single place, using their existing infrastructure.
Ian Dalton, president, BT Global Health, said: “Interoperability is an essential element of the new world of care we need to build to create a sustainable care system. Providing co-ordinated care to patients across organisations relies on health and care professionals having the right information at the right time. By breaking down the barriers between social, residential, community, mental health and hospital care, and presenting information in a single view, clinicians can provide higher quality care and patients feel empowered to participate in their own wellbeing. And because we’re connecting IT systems, not replacing them, care can be delivered at a lower cost and improved efficiency.”
BT offers a managed interoperability solution which is based on a cloud platform and made up of three key elements: a clinical portal and patient portal, both underpinned by an integration platform.
A clinical and social care portal, developed by Harris Healthcare Solutions, provides a single point of access to and supports the management of a patient’s information, enabling care workers to securely review and edit information in a single place. Information can be tailored by each user to display what is most relevant for them and can also be saved to a local electronic patient record, saving time and reducing duplication. It also helps multidisciplinary teams to create, share and manage assessments, care plans and clinical documents across many organisations.
Harris’ patient portal gives individuals the information they need to participate in their own care. For example, patients can review results online and request and view appointments in one place, no matter whether it’s with a GP, a specialist or a social care service.
Integration with Healthcare Gateway Limited’s Medical Interoperability Gateway means that vital facts held by the vast majority of GPs in the UK can be securely shared in real time with the rest of the NHS, including other community providers and secondary and urgent care clinicians – enabling seamless, high-quality care for millions of patients.
Underpinning the solution is an integration platform, connecting the IT systems of health and care organisations such as hospitals, community health, mental health and social care. BT is working with InterSystems, a global leader in software for connected care, to enable organisations to capture, share, understand, and act on information in real-time for safer, improved and affordable care services. The integration capability is provided by InterSystems’ proven rapid integration and development platform with embedded active analytics.
Dalton added: “We’ve chosen to work with three experienced, best of breed suppliers who share our desire to help health and social care organisations to overcome the challenges they face and create a new world of care.”
About Harris Corporation
Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 125 countries. Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has approximately $5 billion of annual revenue and about 14,000 employees — including 6,000 engineers and scientists. Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications® products, systems, and services. Additional information about Harris Corporation is available at harris.com.
About InterSystems
InterSystems is a global leader in software for connected care, with headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and offices in 25 countries. InterSystems Ensemble® is a platform for rapid integration and the development of connectable applications. InterSystems HealthShare® is a strategic platform for healthcare informatics, enabling information exchange and active analytics across a hospital network, community, region or nation. InterSystems CACHÉ® is the world’s most widely used database system in healthcare applications. For more information, visit InterSystems.co.co.uk.
About Healthcare Gateway Limited
Healthcare Gateway is a joint venture business from EMIS and INPS, created in response to market demands for cross-system data sharing, to improve the quality of decision making and patient care. In August 2013, TPP joined the MIG, which means that for the first time ever the vast majority of GPs in the UK are able to provide ‘joined up’ care through secure data-sharing with any other healthcare organisation.
For more information visit www.healthcaregateway.co.uk
