Technology to support collaborative care

A fundamental aspect of improving the delivery of patient care is the facilitation of multidisciplinary collaboration and the effective sharing of information. The Collaborative Care model, which also involves patients in their own self-care, is widely recognised as a method of delivering consistent, high quality healthcare resulting in improved outcomes for patients.

To produce successful Collaborative Care, however, smart tools are needed to deliver the right information at the right time and place to the right people; this is as important as the face-to-face encounter in the traditional healthcare model.

Excelicare was conceived by AxSys Technology, sponsors of this feature, as a solution for Collaborative Care and its underlying architecture has been designed to support this new mode of healthcare delivery. It is also underpinned by standards in data management and has the ability to integrate effectively with existing healthcare IT systems.

In the articles below we look at some current working examples that demonstrate how the concept of collaborative care and the development of managed clinical networks has become a reality. They detail how healthcare providers and patients are benefiting from the application of Excelicare, which was chosen in December 2005 as the National Generic Clinical System for the NHS in Scotland.

West of Scotland Managed Clinical Network for Cancer Established in 2000, the Gynaecological Cancer Network was the first network to be created by the West of Scotland Health Boards servicing a population of 2.7m. The network has successfully developed a multidisciplinary team approach to decision making on the care and treatment of patients and has taken significant steps towards creating a Scottish Cancer Electronic Patient Record. The Wirral Chlamydia Screening Programme Since the establishment of the National Chlamydia Screening Programme in 2002, the Wirral has become a key reference site and has led the way in terms of developing innovative solutions to help streamline the operational day to day process of running the programme within its region. Through the development of its Chlamydia Screening and Management Information System awareness of the infection has increased and 400 to 500 patients are screened every month. National MCN for Cleft Services in Scotland The National Managed Clinical Network for Cleft Services in Scotland has developed a secure, patient-centred electronic record that delivers seamlessly integrated technology hidden from the numerous clinical users in the cleft lip and palate team. It minimises the risk of data fragmentation over multiple sites, reduces cost, time and effort incurred by offline data entry and replication, and provides access for clinicians to the relevant data anytime and anywhere. COPD Service at East Elmbridge and Mid-Surrey PCT In East Elmbridge and Mid Surrey Primary Care Trust’s area, hospital admissions have fallen by 40% for patients seen at home by the COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) Community Service. The success has been achieved using a ‘preventative partnership’ approach which is underpinned by a patient-centric, telemedicine solution for the remote assessment and monitoring of COPD patients.

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