Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust wins 2008 First DataBank Europe/GHP/UKCPA Information Technology Award

Published 14th May 2008

This year’s First DataBank Europe Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists UKCPA Information Technology Award has been awarded to the Pharmacy department of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust, it was announced today. The project team is commended for its development of a Medicines Management e-learning package to improve the effectiveness of medicines management training across the Trust.

The annual award which is in its sixth year was set up to encourage, support and promote information technology initiatives and best practice in the use of IT in pharmacy. This year’s winning project is an e-learning package created to deliver effective training and accurate assessment to all Trust staff involved in the medicines management process.

The judges were particularly impressed with the ability of the package to deliver training appropriate to the individual user regardless of knowledge level and staff group. Located on the Trust’s intranet, the system automatically selects questions relevant to the individual and assesses in-line with their level and role. This sees a clear improvement on previous monthly training sessions where the same information was delivered to all staff attending. This raised issues in content relevance, consistency, resources and logistical problems such as staff availability.

Kerry Watts, Lead Nurse for Medicines Management at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust said: “The e-learning package has greatly enhanced the effectiveness of mandatory medicines management training within the Trust. This award will enable us to update and modify the training package, possibly developing additional modules and extending the question bank facility.”

Neil Kirby, Member of the IT Interest Group enthused, “We had a number of excellent submissions for this year’s award. However, we particularly liked the resourcefulness of this project as it is a big step towards bridging a gap in medicines management training. The concept could easily be transferred to other areas of training within the Trust and indeed to other trusts throughout the UK.”

Hillary Judd, Head of Knowledge Base Services at First DataBank Europe added “We are very pleased that this innovative project won the 2008 award, and hope that the money will help Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust to develop the system even further. We can confirm that we will be offering the Award again in 2009 and encourage departments or individuals to enter their projects and continue to share good practice with others.”

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust will be formally presented with its award for £2500 from First DataBank Europe at the GHP/UKCPA Interest Group Seminar in Coventry on 4 June 2008. Please contact Clare Gibbon at clare_gibbon@firstdatabank.co.uk or on 01392 456123 for an application form for the 2009 award.

ENDS

For further information on the winning entry please contact Yvonne Storey at the in the communications team at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust on Yvonne.storey@nhct.nhs.uk or call 0844 811 8111.

Notes to Editors

First Databank Europe
First DataBank Europe (FDBE) is the UK’s leading provider of drug knowledge bases and active clinical decision support software. Through the effective implementation of our products, we enable safer prescribing and dispensing at the point of care. NHS Connecting for Health has chosen FDBE to provide drug-related clinical decision support.

Patient safety is the driving force behind our business. With over 25 years’ experience of maintaining, developing and implementing drug knowledge bases across the entire healthcare spectrum, FDBE has unrivalled expertise and knowledge in the field of clinical decision support. Our Multilex Drug Data File – the UK’s most comprehensive and widely used drug knowledge base – is in daily use by thousands of healthcare professionals in the UK.

Working closely with a wide range of leading system suppliers to integrate our products into clinical systems across primary care, secondary care, community pharmacy and other healthcare environments, FDBE delivers real patient safety benefits.

For further information visit www.firstdatabank.co.uk

GHP/UKCPA
The Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists IT Interest Group formed in 2001 and joined forces with UK Clinical Pharmacy Association in 2006 to establish a joint group. This group now holds an annual seminar. Delegates have an active interest in the implementation of new technologies to support the provision of pharmacy clinical services.

Northumbria Healthcare
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest healthcare employers in the north east, with over 6,000 staff working in 10 hospitals throughout Northumberland and North Tyneside. Northumbria serves a population of half a million people and has a budget of £220 million. The Trust manages three general hospitals in North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham and several community hospitals in Berwick, Alnwick, Rothbury, Haltwhistle, Blyth, Morpeth and Wallsend.

For further information contact the communications team at Northumbria Yvonne.Storey@nhct.nhs.uk