On behalf of the Kent Surrey and Sussex Academic Health Science the beautiful information team recently team hosted the first of a series of events to bang the drum about the importance of the IM or Information Management function within the NHS – www.kssahsn.net/index.php/news/making-information-beautiful.
For too long IM function has been lumped in together with the IT crowd, those geeks in the basement obsessed with the latest operating system release from Applesoft and whether this year, on the flick of a coin, they should insource or outsource their server farm. Talk of clouds generally just improves my sleep pattern. Those lovely and, usually, insightful people at www.hsj.co.uk have done it again here – the lazy association between IM and IT – http://www.hsj.co.uk/resource-centre/supplements/technology-and-informatics-a-guide-for-chief-executives/5071230.article#
IM is the exciting part where the action happens – #dataintoaction. It really doesn’t matter who manufactured the device you make your phone calls on, what does matter is whether we can build a statistical model strong enough on a Tuesday to predict what the flows through our A&E on Saturday will be. What does matter is that, whichever device is in your pocket that it can receive a message in real-time to tell you, as a nurse specialising in patients with learning difficulties, that a patient has just arrived in your Emergency Care Centre that needs your help now, not in a few days when the hospital administration system has finally allowed you to find them. What does matter is that GPs are able to know more, and more quickly, about which of their patients are in hospital right now, not some historical aggregated analysis of what happened six weeks ago.
We’re planning more events so let us know what you’d like. And follow us on twitter. Maybe facebook might be a step too far for a team based within the NHS. Maybe not.
Let’s start the beautiful information movement #bim.