BACKGROUND: England's National Health Service information technology (NHS IT) has been much criticised in a number of major governmental and non-governmental reports. The author was requested to write a review of NHS IT to help formulate policy. OBJECTIVE: To identify what had worked and should be continued and what was unhelpful and should be dropped from NHS IT. METHOD: Iterative process of debate with a committee of experts. RESULTS: The theme areas which emerged were: • the central importance of the record to serving individual patient care, and that this should be top priority • development of systems should be carried out as close as possible to the front-line clinicians who use them • standards and frameworks are useful centralised functions; whereas imposing detailed technical solutions across large geographical areas is unlikely to succeed and should be abandoned. CONCLUSIONS: IT should be seen as a clinical tool in health care, developed to meet the needs of patients and front-line clinicians.
BACKGROUND: England's National Health Service information technology (NHS IT) has been much criticised in a number of major governmental and non-governmental reports. The author was requested to write a review of NHS IT to help formulate policy. OBJECTIVE: To identify what had worked and should be continued and what was unhelpful and should be dropped from NHS IT. METHOD: Iterative process of debate with a committee of experts. RESULTS: The theme areas which emerged were: • the central importance of the record to serving individual patient care, and that this should be top priority • development of systems should be carried out as close as possible to the front-line clinicians who use them • standards and frameworks are useful centralised functions; whereas imposing detailed technical solutions across large geographical areas is unlikely to succeed and should be abandoned. CONCLUSIONS: IT should be seen as a clinical tool in health care, developed to meet the needs of patients and front-line clinicians.
Authors: Simon de Lusignan; Freda Mold; Aziz Sheikh; Azeem Majeed; Jeremy C Wyatt; Tom Quinn; Mary Cavill; Toto Anne Gronlund; Christina Franco; Umesh Chauhan; Hannah Blakey; Neha Kataria; Fiona Barker; Beverley Ellis; Phil Koczan; Theodoros N Arvanitis; Mary McCarthy; Simon Jones; Imran Rafi Journal: BMJ Open Date: 2014-09-08 Impact factor: 2.692