Tracking patient care

A collaborative research project with the potential to improve the quality of care and cut risks within the NHS has won a significant global award. The joint project between the Cardiff School of Computer Science & Informatics and the Velindre NHS Trust Cancer Centre, aims to enhance the current electronic information system used in hospitals for cancer care, resulting in a more efficient experience for patients. The proposal, which uses workflow software to map a patient's care path, beat international competition to be awarded a Global Gold Award for Excellence in Adaptive Case Management. Teamwork and collaboration are key aspects of the modern healthcare process and for many patients this involves multi-professional care team members providing different services at distributed sites. With current hospital information systems designed to support more traditional, static care processes, researchers at Cardiff are working on how to enhance the current system to support greater interaction and collaboration. Developed in consultation with software developers, clinicians and other healthcare professionals, the system, which is still currently a prototype, tracks the treatment flow of a patient, scheduling and distributing actions, automatically issuing referral letters and gathering appropriate information from multiple resources in order to give enhanced support to the clinical decision making processes. The project is being undertaken by Hessah Alsalamah, a PhD student in the Cardiff School of Computer Science & Informatics and lecturer in the department of Information Technology at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia.