An initiative launched by the DH yesterday aims to encourage the sharing of innovative ideas between individual NHS organisations in England, with the support of the private sector. Information technology will be one of the main areas of innovation to be covered. NHS Live is a year long programme intended to improve the quality of patients’ experience by developing tailor-made personal healthcare for patients was launched on Thursday. Around 350 projects are taking part in NHS Live, many of which heavily involve IT. One scheme, ‘The Virtual Healthy Living Centre’ based in Basildon Primary Care Trust (PCT), allows patients to self-manage chronic conditions by receiving information over the internet. Another scheme highlighted, based in Bracknell Forest PCT, will make use of assistive technology to make information more accessible to those with learning disabilities. As part of the programme leading companies, including Fujitsu, Accenture and Oracle, will have the opportunity of studying and working with these projects, as well as opportunities for job swaps and secondments. Secretary of State for Health, John Reid, told E-Health Insider that NHS Live and the process of modernisation through technology were crucial to the future of the health service: "It is in my view absolutely essential if we are going to empower patients. If a patient wishes to exercise real power over their own healthcare they have to have the information to allow them to do that, and therefore the transfer of information in an electronic form is a massive advance." He continued: "We are not bringing that in as a gimmick. We are bringing that in because it’s the essential pre-requisite for giving people real choice." No specific links between projects and sponsors had been finalised as of press time, but EHI understands that the link-up works by interested companies picking from a list of relevant projects who have requested sponsorship. Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said of NHS Live: "This programme is all about utilising the know-how of NHS staff across the country, with the aim of putting patients at the heart of services. It’s all about giving staff the opportunity to learn from each other about what works at local level." Dr Reid told assembled journalists that people’s ideas needed to be heard on a wider scale: "I believe somewhere the NHS there is somebody who has an idea to give us a better health service that other people have never had. Somebody in that 1.2m has a solution to a problem." Last month EHI reported on possible plans for an NHS Innovation Agency, which would help individual NHS employees with ideas or inventions that would improve the service to create a business model to help make their designs reality.
