NIB informatics strategy outlined

The National Information Board will release a new informatics strategy for consultation in May, to be used to inform commissioning decisions from September this year.

Plans for the two to five year strategy are outlined in a paper presented to a NIB working group meeting today.

The board was previously called the Informatics Services Commissioning Group. It is still chaired by NHS England’s director of patients and information Tim Kelsey, but is now directly accountable to the Department of Health.

The paper says the final strategy should be ready by July and will be underpinned by a piece of economic analysis about investment in health IT, being done with McKinsey.

The strategy will demonstrate the “NIB’s ambition to bring clarity of informatics ownership and strong leadership from the stakeholder bodies” as well as “ensuring strategic alignment across the system in order to ensure maximum benefit and return on investment”.

It will attempt to articulate the “big driving principles” behind investing in technology such as value for money and improving services.

Its five high level priorities are: comparative data/information; interoperable records; transactional services; information for research; and reducing the data burden.

The strategy will look to align with other related strategies such as The Power of Information and the Government Digital Strategy.

It also needs to reference the delivery of the Care Bill and the drive for integration, as well as the need to achieve efficiency gains of £30 billion in the NHS by 2021.

The fourth chapter will be around benefits realisation and will look at how to capture, track and demonstrate clear benefits across the system.

Also, how to maximise the resource available to ensure best value for money and how to properly evidence safety and quality outcomes. This section will look at how to de-commission services and reduce duplication.

The final section, on enabling delivery, will articulate the level of business and cultural change needed to realise the benefits of the strategy and leadership requirements to deliver the changes.

Also, priorities for investment in terms of technology and what can be achieved in 2-5 years: how much it will cost; how it will be funded; what are the system-wide standards that will drive innovation and change; and what skills and resources are needed to make it a reality?

The NIB is a partnership group with membership from a variety of organisations including NHS England, the Health and Social Care Information Centre, Monitor and Public Health England.