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March 2016

Clinicians to view patient records using Open Source technology

New Welsh Clinical Portal searching capability will allow clinicians to access records faster and more easily

Powerful new open-source search technology is being introduced to NHS Wales to make it easier for hospital doctors to find the information they need about their patients.

An advanced new search feature will be added to the next version of the Welsh Clinical Portal (v3.7), which is due to go live this Spring.

The portal is the online service that supports clinicians in their daily work and is used to access patient information, such as medication details, and to request and review test results.

The new search feature will make it easier for doctors to also see discharge letters, theatre notes, referral documents and other clinical letters online, some of which are currently only available in paper format.

Powered by Apache Solr, the search engine used by consumer apps such as Instagram and Netflix, the new functionality will in future make it quicker and simpler to manage the thousands of clinical documents created every day by NHS Wales. This is considered to be the first time Solr has been applied to a health enterprise architecture on a national scale.

Moving more clinical documents online is part of the national approach to an integrated online health record, that makes information available to health care professionals where and when needed.

Spotlight on clinical coding and classification

Supporting fellow informatics

Clinical coders take a doctor's inpatient and outpatient case notes and translate often complicated medical jargon into special alphanumeric codes for entry into a medical database.

It may not sound glamorous, but their work is used to put our healthcare service in perspective. Codes are part of the core data used to build a statistical picture of our healthcare.

In a special newsletter exclusive, Richard Burdon, our Clinical Classification Team Lead, tells us how NHS Wales Informatics Service works with coders to provide vital data support and skills development.

Conferencing software helps critical care clinicians take to the skies

Connecting for improved emergency services

Its official name is the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service - a partnership between Wales Air Ambulance and NHS Wales. But the team of over thirty critical care consultants and practicioners is known generally as the "Flying Doctors." They helicopter into the skies, racing to extreme emergencies and saving lives.

The Flying Doctors have started to use Lync software, supported by NHS Wales Informatics Service to facilitate monthly governance days. Coordinating with clinicians from across Wales and beyond, the Flying Doctors use Lync's video and chat conference capacity for training and to discuss cases, ideas and improvements.

"It's nice to finally have a system that allows people to easily join our discussions from home or England or non NHS sites," said David Rawlinson, Clinical Informatics Manager for the EMRTS. "And there is plenty of scope for other uses for Lync that we are exploring."

Learn more about the Flying Doctors on the Wales Air Ambulance website.

Ewch i'n gwefan am fersiwn iaith Gymraeg o'r cylchlythyr hwn.

Choose Pharmacy to be made available to health boards

Community pharmacists to ease GP pressure with new service

The new Choose Pharmacy Service will be made available to Welsh health boards following successful pilots in Betsi Cadwaladr and Cwm Taf health boards. The service promotes the use of community pharmacies as a first "port-of-call" for patients with minor ailments rather than their GP.

Choose Pharmacy, using software developed by NHS Wales Informatics Service will allow electronic discharge information to be transferred instantly from hospitals to a patient's nominated community pharmacy and for the pharmacy to undertake an electronic discharge medicines review.

It will also allow pharmacists to provide an out-of-hours service for the emergency medicines supply of exiting prescriptions.

Informatics in Words

Simple and straightforward

"My Health Text represents a major piece of time-saving technology that is simple and straightforward."

Mel Gibbs, Practice Manager Isca Medical Centre in Caerleon

Read more about how My Health Text is having a positive impact at Isca Medical Centre on our NHS Wales Informatics Service website.

Informatics@Events

Showcasing Innovation

NHS Wales Informatics Service will be joining more than three thousand health professionals at UK eHealth Week at Olympia London on the 19-20 April.

The event highlights the latest in e-Health innovations across the UK.

For more information or to register for the event, visit:

ukehealthweek.com

We're now on YouTube

Tuning in

Visit our new NHS Wales Informatics Service YouTube page and learn more about how the Image Sharing Project will allow radiology images to be shared across Wales, how My Health Text benefits both patients and clinics, and how (as part of a new Welsh Community Care Information System) the mobile app CareDirector will help clinicians to organise their caseloads.

Gwybodeg yng Nhgymraeg

A Welsh language version

of this newsletter is available

If you would like our monthly newsletter emailed to you in Welsh, please contact us at:

nwisenquiries @wales.nhs.uk

. . .and we'll include you on our new mailing list.

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NHS Wales Informatics Service | | nwisenquiries@wales.nhs.uk | http://www.wales.nhs.uk/informatics