In the name of the law

The London bombings have intensified the debate over the government’s plans to introduce compulsory identity cards. SA Mathieson reports

The plans discussed here were broadly those which entered law through the Identity Cards Act 2006. I wrote about identity cards from 2002 until 2011, and have published a history of ID cards in Britain: more information here.
Continue reading “In the name of the law”

Charting a new course: data analysis of the NHS across the UK

Article on data analysis in the NHS, first published in Health Service Journal, 5 July 2005

Two years ago, Sheila Leatherman, research professor at University of North Carolina’s school of public health, and Kim Sutherland, a senior research associate at University of Cambridge’s Judge institute of management, wrote ‘The Quest for Quality in the NHS’ for the Nuffield Trust, comparing England’s NHS to other developed countries.

The authors noted the lack of a ‘shared robust information base that provides a common understanding of the NHS’s strengths and weaknesses’. Now, Prof Leatherman and Dr Sutherland have attempted to show that such an information base, using independent and routinely-reported data, can and should be compiled – by doing it themselves, through compiling more than 100 charts from numerous sources into a single chartbook of NHS quality.
Continue reading “Charting a new course: data analysis of the NHS across the UK”

Rewriting the script: the NHS and electronic transmission of prescriptions

A version of this article appeared in Health Service Journal, 9 December 2004

Of the three main applications within the English NHS’s National Programme for IT, electronic transmission of prescriptions (ETP) looks the least controversial. The Care Records Service’s online database of patient records causes concerns over privacy and security, while attitudes towards the Choose and Book electronic booking system are coloured by views on patient choice.

By contrast, ETP does not create new flows of data: prescription details already move from GPs to pharmacists, then on to the Prescription Pricing Authority (PPA), allowing it to reimburse pharmacies for the difference between real cost and charged price. Under ETP, this data will move electronically rather than on paper, hopefully cutting errors, saving money and time.
Continue reading “Rewriting the script: the NHS and electronic transmission of prescriptions”

Your life in your hands

Since 1998 the emergency services have been able to automatically locate 999 callers dialling from landlines. Now this potentially life-saving technology is starting to embrace mobile phones as well. SA Mathieson reports

I have written several times about mobile phone locating, including on services using the same technology to track children, and what the mobile networks actually hold on users. This is on an uncontroversial use of the technology, for locating those calling 999.
Continue reading “Your life in your hands”