Scotland has data matching problems, says advisor

Speaking at an international conference on the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) on 26 October 2010, Brian Robson said that whilst developing portals to combine patient information it has experienced problems with ensuring that data links up accurately. "One of the problems that we've had, in common with many of you here and abroad, is that our data doesn't match up. We've had data for targets and government and we've had data from patient care. Our aim is to bring those things together in some form of logical record," he told the event, organised by Edinburgh University. Detailing the systems involved in reaching this aim, he said: "We want to make our data at the front line really work for us. So clinical portal, integration layer, identity access within that, two GP systems from five that we had two years ago, one national PAS system with an intersystems track and an application strategy for the multiple applications." Robson also explained that the current economic climate has put pressure on NHS Scotland to improve quality and reduce costs. It is doing this by trying to reduce the number of systems it has and by "bundling its information stores together", he added. Scotland has an emergency care summary (ECS), which holds basic patient information and can be accessed with a patient's consent by NHS staff if a person's GP surgery is closed. The national database receives twice daily uploads from GP IT systems and critics of summary care records consider it to be a possible alternative to the English model. The country is working on a function that allows doctors to add special notes to an ECS, particularly over the weekend or at night for things they think might occur with patients, revealed Robson. "That is being piloted at the moment. So we're building on the success that has been developed over the past six years," he added.