Revamped clinical system for stoma nurses launched

Satellite navigation, voice recognition and a group calendar all feature in a newly-revamped patient management system devised for specialist stoma nurses.

The system, named Mime, was unveiled last week to stoma nurses at a conference in Cheshire hosted by manufacturer, Coloplast, which developed it. The firm, one of the main suppliers of ostomy equipment, has been supporting patient management systems for nurses since 1994.

Mime will be available in a PDA version for the first time. Desktop PC and laptop versions – already available for the existing system – will continue. The national roll out is due between May and November. Coloplast say it takes one day to migrate data from the current system to the new one and to train the user in Mime.

Coloplast IT manager, John Pelan, said Mime was not a just a simple repackaging of previous versions. “We’re talking about a brand new way of keeping, sharing and even moving your information around,” he told the audience.

In particular, developers have met a request from users for a continuous record for a patient who has multiple stays in hospital.

A facility for standard templates to create letters for GPs, consultants and other correspondents has also been added. The system lays out the letter with the appropriate letterhead for the nurse and keeps a copy in the patient’s record.

Coloplast is committed to ensuring the system integrates with trust record systems and with the National Programme for IT’s systems.

Pelan told the conference: “Specialist departments must be able to receive updates from the trust’s main system; likewise if you add information that’s relevant at a national level it must be able to be uploaded into the spine.”

He hopes the new PDA version will help stoma nurses who find laptops intrusive during a consultation, but stresses that there is no need to switch from desktop and laptop versions if these are preferred.

Enquiries about Mime should go to 0800 371693. Pelan said Coloplast would be pleased to answer enquiries from IT staff supporting system users as well as the nurses themselves.