Twitter: Big theme for NHS in 2009

Thanks to reader Matt who came across Sandra Hempel’s eHealthInsider post where she asked fifteen politicians, vendors, policy makers and NHS IT managers about their big themes for 2009 in the context of the development of the NHS.

Here’s what Paul Jones, the CTO of NHS Connecting for Health had to say. The interesting bit is the last paragraph:

2009 will be a busy year. One thing that stands out is our work with the Continua Health Alliance, an industry body working on standardisation for putting technology into people’s homes. We should see the first products from these standards coming on stream in 2009. I am really looking forward to this; managing people in their own homes is one area where technology can really help.

As far as technology is concerned, I am currently thinking about how we can help community staff. I recently went on some home visits with community nurses and realised that getting out a laptop and printer in a patient’s home is completely unacceptable. Can’t we find something that better fits the way community staff work? It’s too much to expect one supplier to do it, but I’d like to get some universities involved in thinking about this.

Other technologies I am thinking about include cloud computing and Twitter – a sort of mini-Facebook that people who are constantly on the move, like me and consultants, can use for short messages to keep in touch.

Twitter in the NHS? I’ll be interested to see how they adopt and use it!

I wouldn’t mind direct-messaging my doctor when I need an appointment…