IBM and Newchurch to build ICRS demonstrator

A contract has been awarded to IBM and Newchurch to develop a prototype primary care shared clinical information service for West Midlands Strategic Health Authority and South Warwickshire Primary Care Trust (PCT). The project, which will be led by IBM, is thought to be the first demonstrator to receive National IT Programme funding.

The West Midlands project is, in essence, a primary care-led demonstrator for Integrated Care Records Services (ICRS). According to independent sources NHS IT Director General Richard Granger was personally involved in the vetting and selection of applicants who responded to the NHScat procurement.

There is understood to have been keen interest in the contract which offered any prospective local service provider (LSP) a golden opportunity to get to grips with understanding how to deliver ICRS and effectively share clinical data between systems.

“We have called down national investment monies from the National Programme,” Paul Shobrook, Chief Information Officer at West Midlands Strategic Health Authority, confirmed to E-Health Insider. “We hope to get lessons and learning from this that can be shared nationally.”

However, the National Programme office declined to answer a series of questions from E-Health Insider about why it had funded the West Midlands project; whether further such demonstrators could be expected; on what criteria the suppliers were selected; and what lessons it was hoped would be learned.

Mr Shobrook said he was unaware of any other ICRS demonstrator projects that were currently receiving national funding.

The West Midlands project is ‘time-boxed’ to no more than six months. By that point real clinical benefits are to be delivered along with technology that is proven to enable easy data extraction from the GP systems.

Initial development will focus on three practices from South Warwickshire PCT, covering each of the three leading primary care systems: Torex, EMIS and InPractice Systems. Later stages of development will see the system extended to further practices.

The goal is to unlock data from different systems and enable authorised clinicians to access the data from a central repository to support clinical care, support out-of-hours care and social care.

“The idea is to effectively build a repository of clinical data to provide an early view of a primary care shared clinical information service,” explained Mr Shobrook. “We are getting data from three different primary care systems and there is also a modern local community system.”

He stressed that the project was based on developing a system built from the ground up: “We are clear that we want all IT developments to be led from the primary care side.”

Speed, interoperability and maximising the value of existing systems are intended to be the key features of the project. “We are building something very quickly, using existing systems that will support clinical care,” concluded Mr Shobrook.

IBM and Newchurch issued a studiously non-committal joint statement saying, “IBM and Newchurch are pleased to have chosen been selected by the South Warwickshire Primary Care Trust and West Midlands South Strategic Health Authority to provide IT services intended to demonstrate the benefits and challenges associated with building and implementing shared clinical information services for the Primary Care Trust.”