Informatics "must take the lead"

Monday 21st April 2008

HC 2008 – the annual healthcare computing conference organised by the British Computer Society (BCS) – opened today with a call for health informatics to take a leading role in the development of national health services.

In his opening remarks, Professor Stephan Kay, Chairman of the Healthcare Computing Scientific Programme Committee, spoke of the 25 year history of the event, and said: "This year the conference is about harnessing the power of informatics for the benefit of the patient." He described the new format of the conference as a series of "mini-conferences" so delegates could tailor their own programme: "The idea is that you can network, learn, and contribute to this 'Invitation to the Future'."

Speaking at the opening plenary session, Professor Matthew Swindells, Interim Chief Information Officer for Health at the Department of Health (DH), said: "The past 19 years  that I've been in healthcare IT have not been an unmitigated triumph." He spoke of the NHS reforms implemented by UK governments over this period, and lamented that IT had "not quite stepped up to the mark".

"So what do we need to do to make informatics better?" he asked. "We need to be thinking about the whole challenge – this is no longer about delivering PCs to desktops.

"We need to use the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), we need to use the informatics review to drive forward. If you work in informatics, now is the opportunity to go out and save lives."

Rachel Burnett, President of the BCS, recalled  Aneurin Bevan's famous statement upon establishing the NHS - "We now have the moral leadership of the world" – but said that the objectives of HC 2008 were not quite so lofty, but were about the development and maintenance of IT competencies within the healthcare service.

Burnett lamented press attitudes towards the DH agency NHS Connecting for Health: "The relationship of the BCS to the NHS has always been that of a friend. It is unfortunate that the National Programme has received a lambasting in the media, much of it ill-informed." She described how the BCS had attempted to publicise the many successes of NPfIT, and the huge potential benefit to the public, as well as health professionals. However, the BCS also published a report that was critical of aspects of the programme, and this, she said, had inevitably received far greater press coverage. "IT projects," she added, "are more associated with failure than success in much of the media's eyes."

Organisers expect 550 delegates to attend the event. NHS  Connecting for Health will showcase some of the latest NPfIT services at the event, including the Common User Interface, Mainstreaming IM&T, and Capability and Capacity. The project's Jan Hoogewerf and Peter Dyke will also be speaking on interoperability.

HC2008

British Computer Society

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