Posted - 14 February 2019, Dr Alistair Hann, Chief Technology Officer
The Road to the National Digital Platform
Building a National Digital Platform for health and social care data is a huge undertaking, and in a recent blogpost, NES Chairman David Garbutt asked “where do we start – which route should we take through the landscape of systems?” We have now started building the platform to make health informati…
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Posted - 07 January 2019, Pamela Dimberline, Specialist Lead, NES
Helping staff get the most out of tech
On these pages, we’re hearing a lot about how tech can help improve people’s lives. But it’s vital that the health and social care workforce have the knowledge and skills to exploit the opportunities that exist now and in the pipeline. Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy emphasises workforc…
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Posted - 26 November 2018, Geoff Huggins, NDS Director
A week in NDS
Geoff Huggins gives us an insight into a typical week as NDS Director, working with stakeholders to plan the National Digital Platform: Monday 19 November –It’s essential that the National Digital Platform fits in with other ongoing and upcoming IT developments. So this week kicked off with a morni…
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Posted - 11 October 2018, Dr Alistair Hann, Chief Technology Officer
Why do some features flop?
I often hear businesses talk about investing a lot of effort in trying to achieve an outcome that is important to them, but with little success – I then draw a simple diagram that explains exactly why and offers a better way forward. I hope you find it useful too. Consider a hypothetical online sho…
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Posted - 09 October 2018, David Garbutt, Chair, NHS Education for Scotland
Would you start from here?
I met a delegation from Estonia recently, who were discussing how they’d managed to build an fantastic integrated, set of healthcare IT systems. While they undoubtedly had vision, drive and technical insight, a key factor was that they’d started from a clean slate. After the break-up of the Soviet U…
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Posted - 28 August 2018, Dr Alistair Hann, Chief Technology Officer
Washing up as you go along
In 1992, Ward Cunningham came up with ‘technical debt’ as a metaphor for the consequences of choosing to ship imperfect code: "Shipping first time code is like going into debt. A little debt speeds development so long as it is paid back promptly with a rewrite... The danger occurs when the debt is …
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Posted - 15 August 2018, Dr Alistair Hann, Chief Technology Officer
Why I don’t like ‘digital’.
I recently joined the NES Digital Service, and even suggested the name, so it may seem strange that whenever I hear the word ‘digital’ I get twitchy and a cheeky voice in my head says ‘analogue’. That concern is about why something needs to be called ‘digital’. I have never heard my thirteen-year-o…
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Posted - 03 August 2018, Geoff Huggins, NDS Director
Digital platforms: what’s in it for citizens?
In a previous post we outlined some of the problems facing clinical and other staff in delivering health and care services, and outlined how a national digital platform might start to help. But as citizens, how’s this going to benefit us directly? Health and care services are intended to help peopl…
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Posted - 26 July 2018, Geoff Huggins, NDS Director
What’s this NES Digital Service thing about then?
A few weeks ago I began to work with some people to develop a new ‘national digital platform’ for the health and care sector. We want to take a fresh approach, both about what we’re doing and how we go about it. So, as people keep asking me: “What are you up to Geoff?” Well, it’s about technology,…
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Posted - 26 July 2018, Jamie Reid, Product Owner
Turas FNP - coming soon…
The collection and interpretation of data is one of the aspects of the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) programme that makes it so unique. The current data system which uses a platform reaching the end of its useful life and which was not developed with the specific needs of FNP in mind. NES Digital…
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Posted - 20 July 2018, Geoff Huggins, NDS Director
Welcome to the NDS
We are a new team, working to improve how your medical information is managed so that it is available to you, when you need it, safely and securely. We think you should be able to do things like book appointments, get test results, manage your medication and renew prescriptions. To make this happen…
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