Recently I was invited by BridgeHead Software to present at their seminar entitled “Future of Data Management.” Some facts that put the data management issue in perspective; over 30% of the world’s current storage usage is for medical images. More than 85% of medical data once stored, will never be accessed again. That, together with the closing of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) means Trusts now need their own local archiving solutions. This forces us to really look at where we have been, what have we learned and where are we going with regards to Data Management in Healthcare.
Myself, the UK Healthcare Imaging and Unified Clinical Archive (UCA) Lead for Dell Services, together with Mary Barber the Programme Director at Connecting for Health as well as Jamie Clifton, Director of Product Management at Bridgehead Software presented our key thoughts around the journey of data management.
My Key Takeaways:
Mary Barber: The close of the National PACS programme and the challenges this presents:
- If we do nothing, nearly two million patients per month will suffer. The NHS must look for something to transition to now that the NPfIT is closing.
- Having a locally procured and implemented PACS, RIS and imaging archive solution will bring us closer to the patient, as it will be tailored to the needs of local healthcare communities.
Jamie Clifton: The future of healthcare data management
- The data tells us there’s a long way to go for the majority of health organisations to have solid disaster recovery and business continuity solutions. , look at the City Hospitals Sunderland five year journey (below Case Study).
- Data sharing means creating a virtual relationship between healthcare data, its storage, applications and clinical workflow.
Dr. Mohammed Hussein: VNA/XDS and their influence on clinical workflow
- The need to unlock information exists because data silos, in multiple formats, with different storage tiers and modalities, means there is a lot of fragmentation which isn’t easy for the clinician to gain a holistic view of a patient.
- The Dell Unified Clinical Archive (UCA) solution, used in the Sunderland Case Study, allows consolidation and standardisation to efficiently store, manage and share medical image data providing better clinical workflow and more time spent with patients.
A Five-year Data Management Journey:
(Please visit the site to view this video)
City Hospital Sunderland proves it’s about the journey, not the destination with a five-phase approach to a single, enterprise-wide Health Data management solution. See this as a five-year journey from 2009 – 2014 to have all their data stored, protected and shared.
As you can see, it was a full day and the “journey of sharing” doesn’t stop with our presentations. I hope this inspires you to share your ideas and journeys of better managing data for your organization. What challenges are you seeing? How are you dealing with the closure of the NPfIT?