NHS to create MySpace-type staff portal

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A new portal system similar to MySpace will be deployed in NHS facilities in order to provide better information sharing among staff, patients and the public.

The NHS is examining its IT systems in a bid to transform health and social care, according to the Health Informatics Review.

The Department of Health consulted 1,400 stakeholders for the review, including patients, the public, clinicians and other health and social care professionals from every NHS region in England, in order to help build on its record of information sharing.

The report proposes that a staff portal system called “mystaffspace” be created, which will provide a “one-stop-shop” for the key information sources that are used regularly.

It is hoped that the MySpace-type interface will allow staff to access information about education and training, clinical information and research and career progression through a single site.

This latest report follows on from the NHS Next Stage Review, which highlighted the challenge of “health in an age of information and connectivity” and the need to allow NHS staff greater access to information and IT systems.

According to the Health Informatics Review, the NHS’s “recent investment in technology has created the opportunity to make a leap forward in information management for the NHS.” As information is being collated and shared more and more effectively, the review found that the NHS needed to “build on this progress to move forward.”

NHS medical director and interim director general for informatics – which covers areas of information, technology, analytical tools and techniques, governance and skills – Sir Bruce Keogh stressed the need for IT infrastructure to be improved.

“Whilst we are rightly proud of our NHS…there is a view that we have lagged behind other industries in providing sophisticated IT infrastructure to support NHS staff,” he said.

Sir Keogh stressed that there was a “strong appetite” in the NHS to create a coherent informatics system to address issues of data transfer and security.

The report will be followed by a more technically-based, detailed Health Informatics Review Implementation Report in autumn 2008.

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