For this year's news, please visit the Latest news section.
NHS Choices, the NHS national online service, has set up an innovative new service in the Humber to target the region's poor sexual health. The new service will use Bluetooth and text messaging (text number 60999) to provide information about safer sex and contraception for young people in the region.
Read more »Three practice managers discuss making business sense of the practice-based commissioning in the November/December issue of Practice Management. They are also featured in Dr Foster Intelligence's latest issue of Intelligence and all three reiterate the importance of high-quality, timely data.
Read more »Polled at the annual NHS Alliance conference, delegates from around the country believe that the new PCTs are better than the old and that practice-based commissioning is ‘going somewhere.’ They also agreed that the public’s health is improving.
Read more »We know that the NHS is currently experiencing difficulties with the quality and timeliness of SUS data, and so as the UK’s leading healthcare information provider, we are working closely with the Information Centre to try to improve this.
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In 1998, a group of experienced vascular surgeons in the UK created the National Vascular Database (NVD) in order to provide clinicians with a way to measure performances across the country. The database has steadily grown, and now, with the help of Dr Foster Intelligence, will become the live NVD audit online tool.
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Homerton University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is working with Dr Foster Intelligence to organise an event for provider teams involved in patient experience. The event is free of charge but limited to 100 places.
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In the 2006/07 Healthcare Commission annual Trust performance rating, the proportion rated excellent increased from four per cent to an impressive 16 per cent.
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Dr Foster Intelligence proved to be the most experienced of the 14 providers in the FESC framework, with 89% of PCTs already having experience of working the company.
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BT named Homerton Hospitals NHS Trust winner of the award in the e-Health Insider competition for the work the Trust has done in improving communication with its patients.
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Dr Foster Intelligence's Quit-it campaign in Greater Manchester generates 4,512 referrals to Local Stop Smoking Services in just four months
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The work of the Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in patient and public engagement was highlighted in a recent Nursing Standard article.
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Evaluated in the annual Dr Foster Intelligence Hospital Guide, the Trust stood out as one of the best in the country. It consistently passed a range of indicators that included...
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Dr Foster Intelligence tendered successfully to provide 64 micro-services and the Patient and Public Engagement Macro Service listed in the Framework for procuring External Support for Commissioners (FESC).
The Department of Health created FESC to help save PCTs time and money in the process of procuring help with commissioning. PCTs' commissioning responsibilities have been broken down into a number of macro-levels of work and then sub-divided into a further number of micro-levels of work.
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In April, The James Cook University Hospital and Friarage Hospital were ranked as best performers across 12 key categories, including measures of clinical quality, efficiency, access and patient satisfaction in the Dr Foster Intelligence Hospital Guide.
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Evaluated in the annual Dr Foster Intelligence Hospital Guide, the trust, that runs Musgrove Park Hospital, demonstrated a consistently high level of performance that led to it being named the medium-sized Trust of the Year.
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Homerton University Hospital NHS Trust was short-listed and then made a finalist in the Excellence in Health Information Management award category.
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Laing & Buisson's Innovation award recognises and rewards a significant and cutting-edge advance in independent healthcare provision. The work can be in any category - medical, financial, nursing or organisational.
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A brand-new resource is available to help promote well-informed patients. The Dr Foster Ethics Committee collaborated with a range of leading clinicians and patient representatives both here and in the US to devise a project to promote effective information sharing between the public and healthcare professionals. The aim was to produce something of real practical value rather than a policy based paper that would not impact on the way healthcare is delivered and experienced.
The result is an Information Prescription; a resource which defines the questions a patient should expect their clinician to help them answer, plus a 'clinician's pledge'.
These are now available for you to download and use freely.
Practice and Provider Monitor is designed to build on the existing Practice Based Commissioning (PBC) and Hospital Activity Tracker (HAT) tools and, eventually, to replace them. It is specifically designed to help commissioners, GPs and service providers to share, discuss and monitor in-hospital activity on-line.
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BBC News recently covered our A&E campaign in Tower Hamlets where inappropriate use of accident and emergency services was a continuing problem for the PCT, especially at the Royal London Hospital. Dr Foster Intelligence was commissioned to research the reasons behind users' attendances in A&E and design a communication campaign to encourage more appropriate use of local services.
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The 'Catch Your Breath' COPD campaign run by Dr Foster Intelligence in Cheshire and Merseyside has been short-listed for the HSJ awards in the communications category. One of five campaigns on the final list, the COPD campaign reached more than 4,000 households. Sixty-five per cent of the people contacted requested further stop smoking information and support.
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On 12 September, Jake Arnold-Forster will address delegates at Healthcare Event's Trust, Assurance and Safety: Delivering Healthcare Revalidation event in London.
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The Dr Foster Ethics Committee was privileged to have Harry Cayton as their guest speaker at their latest meeting. Speaking on Innovation and information: new ways of doing old things or new ways of doing new things? Cayton delivered some thought-provoking and challenging ideas on new technologies and information sharing in healthcare.
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The Dr Foster Ethics Committee was privileged to have Harry Cayton as their guest speaker at their latest meeting. Speaking on Innovation and information: new ways of doing old things or new ways of doing new things? Cayton delivered some thought-provoking and challenging ideas on new technologies and information sharing in healthcare.
Read more »
NHS Choices launched on 18 June as a comprehensive health service centred around an informative, colourful, easily accessible website.
Designed to be user-friendly for internet users of all abilities, the website gathered together information that used to be available from many different NHS and health services sources.
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Dr Foster Intelligence asked more than 150 NHS trust chairs and chief executives if they had taken steps to improve the provision, presentation and use of information within their organisation. Their answers were a resounding yes.
"The reports are excellent publications, and the suggested board agenda formed the basis of our plan and assurance framework," said Sir John Brigstocke, Chairman, NHS East Midlands.
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Dr Foster Intelligence's Research and Consultation Services team completed a nationwide survey into levels of awareness of ovarian cancer.
The shock results found that only one in six, a mere 16 per cent, of women are aware of ovarian cancer. This compares starkly to the more than four out of five, 84 per cent, of women who are aware of breast cancer. More women are aware of the exclusively male prostate and testicular cancers than they are of ovarian cancer.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP, broadcaster and spokesperson on women's health for the Royal College of General Practitioners said, "Of all the cancers that women have that I care for, ovarian cancer is the most distressing because it tends to be picked up so late."
Dr Foster Intelligence is involved in NHS Confederation in several ways, including hosting a debate, a breakfast discussion and a dinner. Highlights include Roger Taylor, Director of Research, discussing the development of patient safety indicators in the quality and safety strand. Download a copy of the Intelligent Guide to NHS Confederation Annual Conference 2007 [adobe pdf].
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Laing & Buisson is hosting its first series of debates about the relationship between public and private healthcare. Held on 12 September, the event will include an exhibition, workshops and fringe meetings and will be opened by the Secretary of State for Health.
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In this year's National Business Awards, Dr Foster Intelligence was Highly Commended in the Small to Medium Sized Business of the Year category. The company was judged on the benefits provided to the healthcare information industry, as well as turnover, profit, growth and market share.
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Dr Foster Intelligence has been short-listed as one of three finalists in the Laing & Buisson's Healthcare Awards, in the innovation category. The award called for entries that demonstrated significant, cutting edge advancements in independent healthcare provision. Dr Foster Intelligence's entry focused on its Real Time Monitoring tool as the first of a suite of management information systems.
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HealthInvester Deals of the Year Awards recently chose Tim as one of their three finalists for the Healthcare Entrepreneur of the Year award. His entry highlighted how he translated a vision for healthcare information provision into reality. His vision became a successful company that has now grown into two, Dr Foster Intelligence and Dr Foster Research.
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Dr Foster Intelligence is pleased to announce its collaboration with the Association of Greater Manchester PCTs (AGMPCTs) on a smoking cessation campaign.
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Exploring the information available in mental health is a complex task and agreeing upon a basic set of information for trusts calls for robust debate. The Intelligent Mental Health Board report has done just that and was launched as the final report in the Intelligent Board series.
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Julia Sharman, Dr Foster Intelligence's Head of Customer Support and Development, has begun a six-month secondment to the East Midlands Strategic Health Authority as Head of Performance Intelligence. Julia is leading the SHA's information team and will work closely with performance leads and PCTs.
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Andy Burnham, Minister of State for Delivery and Reform, is supporting the recent Intelligent Practice report.
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The recent Audit Commission report Better Safe Than Sorry announced that injuries to children cost the NHS approximately £146 million a year. Their most recent figures reveal that injuries kill children at a rate similar to cancer - three children per 100,000 every year.
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Intelligence is the first in a series of reports exploring the relationship between information and improving health and healthcare. It marks the first anniversary of the launch of the Dr Foster Intelligence joint venture.
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Ahead of the government's publication next week of a draft marketing code for NHS trusts, some NHS hospitals are already using Dr. Foster's Hospital Marketing Manager (HMM) tool.
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FIT - issue 4
2007 | FIT
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