Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Science and Technology Committee.
- Date:
- 1996
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![16 April 1996] [ Continued Department of Health World Wide Web Site The Department has maintained an Internet World Wide Web Site on the CCTA’s Open Government WWW server since 20 June 1995, and is amongst the most heavily used of the Departmental home pages. The Internet site address for the Department of Health is: http://www.open.gov.uk/doh/dhhome.htm. The site includes details of its strategic aims and objectives, National Health Service developments, Research and Development activities, Departmental publications and events, the NHS Code of Openness and progress on the Health of the Nation Initiative. In addition Departmental Press releases are available as are links to Departmental agencies. These Internet home pages are revised as new information becomes available or existing pages are updated. A “What’s New” page is available to help alert users to new amendments to the Department’s home pages. A feedback form facility is available, and details of Departmental publications and their availability, as well as the full text of some Departmental publications and information packs, can be downloaded. Details of a number of the Department’s information phone lines are also listed. Further information is being added to the Department of Health Internet site, including material on the Organisation Codes. An interactive Medlink service has also been mounted, whereby developers of new medical devices can contact the Department’s agent acting for the Department of Health’s Research and Development Directorate. Overall usage of the service has increased by approximately 200 per cent over the six months the service has been running, and the site is now referred to in both the IT press and in training course on electronic healthcare information. (vil) data protection, confidentiality and censorship? The introduction of data networking services allowing the ready exchange of information between NHS organisations brings with it the risk of unauthorised access to information, in particular personal patient ‘records, in whole or in part, and also accidental or deliberate corruption of information. Addressing these risks has been and will continue to be seen as a very high priority, and consultation with the professional representative bodies on issues of security and confidentiality has and continues to take place. Elegibility for access to the NHS-wide Networking data services is carefully controlled, and signing a Code of Connection, outlining the terms and conditions of connection and use of the networking services, is a mandatory requirement. A security audit of the connecting organisation may be necessary, to ensure that the overall security of the network is not compromised by some inherent insecurity of a connecting organisation. The British Medical Associaiion have indicated that information, particularly identifiable patient data, should be encrypted before it is sent across NHS-wide networking services. A study into the need for implementation and use of encryption across the NHS-wide Network reported in December 1995. Ministers and the NHS Executive are considering the implications of cost and practicality in encrypting data transmitied across NHS-wide networking services. 7. What will be the impact of the “Information Superhighway” on working practices and employment prospects? Initially the network is expected to be used for high volume administrative flows, such as contract related transactions, GP Items of Service Claims, distribution of prescribing statistics. GP/Hospital information exchange is recognised as a high priority, for referrals, discharges and test requests and results for pathology and radiology. Electronic mail for ad-hoc correspondence across the NHS and between the NHS and the NHS Executive and Department of Health is expected to become heavily used. However, electronic networks can facilitate entirely new ways of working with a potential fundamental and substantial impact on the NHS. Telemedicine, particularly in its most sophisticated forms, could revolutionise many aspects of the delivery of, and access to health care and fundamentally impact on skill mix requirements. January 1996 Annex A TELEMEDICINE—A FEW CURRENT HIGH-PROFILE EXAMPLES Institute of Telemedicine and Telecare, Queens University, Belfast, run by Professor Richard Wootton, who earlier in the year moved from the Royal Postgraduate Medical School for Medical Physics, Hammersmith Hospitals Trust, where he ran a similar department. Professor Wootton is an internationally-acknowledged expert on telemedicine/care issues and has several live projects that cover the major aspects of this field: — Remote diagnosis—for example the Royal Victoria Hospital trauma clinic in Belfast, which has much experience gained from treating bomb victims and gunshot wounds, is able to share that expertise with a community walk-in clinic in London.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32218631_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
