The UK’s leading healthcare software provider EMIS Group today (30 November 2018) revealed plans for the next generation of connected healthcare technology.
EMIS-X, a new cloud-based solution that seamlessly links different healthcare teams and systems, is at the centre of a suite of innovations from the company, which serves healthcare professionals in over 10,000 UK organisations.
The next generation software will upgrade and extend EMIS Web, the clinical system used by 56% of GPs, to meet the current and future needs of customers and end users including patients, clinicians and the NHS.
Built on a cloud platform, EMIS-X is a new ecosystem that fully supports NHS Digital interoperability standards but goes significantly further by allowing applications to selectively share live data through cross application working. Its modular design will enable EMIS Web users to transition seamlessly to the new platform. The company’s new Group Chief Technology Officer Pete Malcolm is leading its development.
Key benefits are:
- Clinicians working in any location with any third-party technology will be able to view and share vital patient information safely and ethically. They will be able to see a consolidated view of key medical information across healthcare organisations using EMIS-X, partner products, other NHS systems and patients themselves, giving unique insight into patients’ medical history.
- EMIS-X will not only help improve the quality of care through embedded clinical intelligence but will also save time currently spent trying to access records in disparate, unconnected systems.
- The interoperability at the heart of the architecture will make it easier for new solution providers with interesting technologies such as artificial intelligence to enter the NHS market.
EMIS Group CEO Andy Thorburn said: “From the start, EMIS Group has led the way in interoperability and we have been working closely with clinicians and other customers during 2018 to develop EMIS-X. We believe it is the blueprint for the future of connected healthcare in the UK.
“EMIS-X is massively scalable and provides unprecedented levels of protection for patient data, including strong encryption of sensitive data.
“It is designed as a portfolio of foundation services upon which clinical applications can be developed, both by EMIS Group and partners. This will also allow new solution providers with interesting technologies such as artificial intelligence to overcome the traditional barriers to market entry, leveraging the interoperability at the heart of our new architecture.”
He added: “We believe EMIS-X will help to hugely improve efficiency and patient safety, while providing dramatic cost savings to the NHS. We see millions of hours currently spent by patients and staff in repeating information at each stage of the patient’s healthcare journey being eliminated and the management of medicines in pharmacy being revolutionised by better insight and more efficient services delivered through EMIS-X.”
Among the new features for EMIS-X is federated appointments, which for example will enable clinicians to instantly search providers of an investigation service such as an MRI scan, to immediately book the earliest appointment nearest to the patient’s location, giving patients the details by text, email or print-out.
Other developments announced today include:
- Intelligent Consulting – voice recognition technology currently being tested in EMIS-X and using artificial intelligence to make consultations more patient-friendly and save clinicians time. It will automatically interpret patient-clinician conversations and turn them into medical codes that present relevant data or launch and complete clinical decision tools. Doctors will be able to concentrate fully on the patient, rather than retrieving information from the computer.
- GP video consultations via Patient Access. Patients will be able to book video appointments, as an alternative to in-person surgery visits, reducing the need to travel and enabling remote patient management for a significant proportion of conditions.
- EMIS Health analytics – a powerful healthcare intelligence suite, giving users insight across a breadth of clinical and administrative indicators, including appointments capacity, and prescribing and referral patterns. It enables ‘at-a-glance’ overviews of performance, enabling commissioners to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare.
PHOTO CAPTION: EMIS Group CEO Andy Thorburn at the software launch in London
