NHS Connecting for Health has awarded iSoft a contract to develop a solution to enable GPs to order pathology tests and view the results online.
The deal will see iSoft provide a new module that will enable GPs to request tests from within a electronic patient record and then access the results directly from the EPR when they are ready.
Isoft will also deliver a pilot project to prove the technology. This will begin at a major acute trust that is already using the pathology system, but which has yet to be named.
According to the company, GP systems do not generally provide clinical requesting. Its solution will provide this functionality, in a form that can be integrated into all the major UK GP systems.
ISoft says it will plug into all proven interfaces, and so be GP-system independent while designed to work with most UK GP applications.
ISoft was unable to comment on the financial and delivery details within the contract. However, it said that the solution is planned for full release in the second half of 2010, when GPs will be able to request tests by local NHS trusts using iSoft laboratory systems.
Yesterday, iSoft announced that the company was in the process of creating a new UK based development team specifically to develop the capability of its laboratory systems.
The components for the GP request and results in pathology are already available, although some development work is required to address new CfH information governance standards and configuration work may be needed to integrate various components with the Spine.
Gary Cohen, iSoft’s executive chairman and chief executive officer said: “These and other developments put us in prime position to capitalise on the growth in this sector and deliver solutions at a local and national level to meet the future needs of public and private laboratory systems.”
Link: iSoft