Abstracts

Advances in information and communication technology (ICT) over the last few decades have the capacity to significantly change the way we deliver our healthcare services. An epilepsy programme may involve a number of services including out patient clinics, diagnostic testing, pregnancy register, research activites, advisory services and surgical treatments.These services both generate complex medical data and require timely access to this information. To minimise inefficiencies such as duplication and to improve access and quality of information for clinical and research purposes, appropriate data management systems are required. The development of electronic patient records (E.P.R), an integrated data repository, provides a tool to carry this out. We aim to introduce an epilepsy E.P.R to support the management and development of epilepsy services. To achieve this we have conducted a study of the availability of commercial products to suit the requirements of a multidisciplinary epilepsy programme.
Selected vendors and Medical Information Technology companies specialising in E.P.R. were identified. E.P.R systems from 10 suppliers were evaluated under the following criteria: company profile, data management, database training, database functions, data analysis tools, networks, software support, data security and costing. In addition, using these same criteria, an international survey was conducted to establish the use and availability of E.P.R[apos]s in epilepsy centres worldwide.
Analysis of currently available commercial systems identified only one system that is appropriate to the requirements of a multidisciplinary epilepsy programme. However, this system is not yet in use in the epilepsy field and would require some modification to optimise its application in this area. Internationally it would appear that as yet there is no fully integrated epilepsy E.P.R. Centres are using isolated databases for either clinical use or for specific research purposes.
Electronic patient records will facilitate systems that can be easily interrogated and allow for rapid access to complex data. Such developments will allow for improved patient care, planning of services and support of clinical decision making and research. The E.P.R. should facilitate the review and statistical analysis of data to identify clinical trends. Implementation of an E.P.R. should not be viewed as simply an electronic index box but more appropriately as a necessary requirement to facilitate efficient utilisation of patient data.