Time is ripe for a "pregnancy based system" of data collection

BMJ 1995;310:1066 (22 April)

Letters

Time is ripe for a "pregnancy based system" of data collection

EDITOR,--James Owen Drife echoes the widespread anxiety regardingthe inadequacy of present maternity data and emphasises theimportance of satisfactory information for assessment of theconsequences of changing practices of pregnancy care in Britain.¹His proposal for an improvement in the collection of data isfeasible, and the necessary building blocks for achieving thisare already being put in place through the initiatives of theInformation Management Group of the NHS Executive.

The NHS Executive launched the NHS information management andtechnology strategy in December 1992. One of the principal initiativesof the strategy is "a common [information management and technology]infrastructure for secure sharing of information."² Includedin this initiative are the replacement of the NHS number, thedevelopment of NHS administrative registers, NHS-wide networking,³a thesaurus of clinical terms, technical standards, and ensuringconfidentiality and security. These projects are well underway, and some are nearing completion. An . . . [Full text of this article]