May 25, 2017
Is your Health IT solution an ugly baby?
For anyone who’s been a parent, the sight of your newborn child is undoubtedly the most beautiful and fascinating thing you will ever set eyes on. But, let’s face it, the harsh reality is that not all of those wrinkly bundles are blessed with equally endearing features. Sometimes we see what we want to see…it’s […]
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December 5, 2016
Has your SCCI 0129 safety management strategy for Health IT stalled along the way?
Working with manufacturers of health IT systems, it’s fascinating to watch organisations evolve and mature as they implement the SCCI 0129 safety management processes. I consistently see organisations pass through various stages of safety maturity. Proactive assurance and safe design is the ultimate goal. Yet so many organisations, without help, get lost along the way. […]
Read MoreJune 24, 2016
The NHS Health IT Safety Standards – Where can I find them?
DCB 0129 and DCB 0160 set out the requirements for managing clinical risk in health IT systems in England. Unfortunately, the array of different documents often causes confusion. There are several documents, several versions of those documents, periodic renaming and different places on the web they are stored. Let me try to put that confusion […]
Read MoreMay 19, 2016
Top tips for writing health IT hazard logs
This week I’ve been developing a hazard log for an innovative health IT product. Constructing a hazard log from scratch can be a daunting experience and many see it as a labour-intensive tick-box exercise. But done properly, the activity really makes you examine the product - often you are the first person to look at […]
Read MoreApril 26, 2016
Can health IT usability compromise patient safety?
With the Clinical Software Usability Survey (cSUS) reaching a key milestone recently, my thoughts have turned to the overlap between usability and safety in health IT. When I run seminars on SCCI 0129 and SCCI 0160 compliance I often pose delegates the question, “Can usability issues in health IT systems impact patient safety?”. The dilemma often […]
Read MoreFebruary 26, 2016
Can workarounds help us to deal with safety-related faults in health information systems?
When health information systems exhibit faults the clinical impact ranges from inconvenient to dangerous, in some cases clinical safety can be compromised. But users are remarkably resourceful and when clinicians are reliant on systems to safely deliver care they are motivated to get the information they need. Complex applications often have more than one way of […]
Read MoreJanuary 21, 2016
Clinicians, should we be using medical apps?
Many of us have done it. You’re with a patient and you launch that handy little app which you’ve just downloaded to your smartphone. It might perform a useful calculation, crunch through an algorithm or generate some essential clinical advice. During a busy day’s work, clinical apps can save us time, paper and brainpower. But […]
Read MoreNovember 11, 2015
Safety in Health IT: Are commercial contracts the right way to manage clinical risk?
Manufacturers of Medical Devices expend a great deal of effort and money in assuring their products, after all they are usually required to do so by law. In eHealth the story is quite different. Health IT products such as Electronic Health Records don’t usually meet the criteria for being Medical Devices despite being capable of […]
Read MoreSeptember 22, 2015
Why does risk management in Health IT need to be proactive?
When I run SCCI 0160 courses in clinical risk management in Health IT I like to ask attendees lots of questions. I often feel that I learn as much as they do at these sessions. One question in particular nearly always gets a predictable answer; how do you manage risk in your health IT systems […]
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June 9, 2015
The illusion of communication – A silent hazard of Health IT systems
When we picture the hazards which Health IT could introduce, some risks to patient safety immediately come to mind; corrupt data, the wrong patient, missing data, system unavailable, etc. But hidden within the depths of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and other Health IT solutions lays a more mysterious hazard, one which can be hard to characterise […]
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