There is no doubt there is a bit of a buzz about the NHS and health software. OpenApp demo'ed VA VistA two years and, to be honest, it was a bit of a slog but not this year. We saw lots of interest in VistA and OpenApps OpenData Atlas along with our latest solution in clinical assessments and registries.
We recently attended EHI Live 2013 at Birminghams NEC, where we saw many innovative and exciting technology solutions to improve delivery within the UK healthcare service. There was a strong appetite for EHR solutions and solution specific mobile applications. On the app front we saw 'lite' as the order of the day as solution specific functionality was preferred over complex and heavy applications. We also saw strong appetite towards wearable technology, which just further highlights the future direction of data capture and real-time patient care; more on this will follow in later posts, as one of our writers is a medical device fiend.

At the OpenApp stand itself, we saw strong interest in our various solutions in healthcare KPI and KQI reporting methods, OpenSource as a business model, our OpenData Atlas solution and in particular our latest solution aimed at the single patient encounter clinical assessment solution.

Most importantly, we had a chance to meet face-to-face with organisations interested in VistA and how it would be implemented in the UK. DSS's Joe Byers was at hand to answer how the VistA platform is being implemented in the US and how it might be implemented by NHS England. From all our conversations over the two day event, we see a clear and strong appetite for more information on VistA and we have promised follow-up sessions and articles that will hopefully clear any confusion that we have seen to exist in the UK market towards VistA and OpenSource technology as a real alternative to commercial off-the-shelf products.

Our presentation of the platform we have recently delivered to the European Cystic Fibrosis Society; “From Patient Assessment to European Registry, European cystic fibrosis experience” proved to be well received by the SkunkWorks attendees, where they showed a particular interest in our approach to data protection and our flexible approach to form and schema design. You can follow up on all the material presented at the Skunkworks stand by following this link. If you have similar questions on patient identity at single encounter to cross-border anonymity, feel free to follow-up with Mel where he will gladly walk you through the finer details of the approach we’ve taken.

All-in-all the healthcare IT sector is 'healthy' within the UK and although we didn’t make it to the super-fun Speakeasy night, we’ve pencilled EHI Live 2014 into our diaries for next year.

This article was published by Michael O'Donnell and for more information contact info@openapp.ie