BMJ  2006;332:305 (4 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7536.305-b

Letter

One step forward in engaging clinicians in IT

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—We read with sympathy the experience of setting up and maintaining a database.1 As rheumatologists in a district general hospital, we went through a similar process, but with a more positive outcome.

We initially explored standalone databases, which were costly, not guaranteed to link with our hospital systems, and requiring the expense of annual back up. One of us (MEL) sat on the hospital information technology (IT) committee (which, unsurprisingly, had plenty of vacancies for clinicians). We worked with our hospital IT department to set up a system based on the hospital patient administration system, a surprisingly powerful data storage tool. It took several months to complete but resulted in a robust and well supported system that has survived to the dawn of the national programme for IT in the NHS (NpfIT).2 We have been lucky to have adaptable and dedicated secretaries. Although the system is more cumbersome . . . [Full text of this article]

Mark E Lloyd, consultant rheumatologist

Frimley Park Hospital, Frimley, Surrey GU16 7UJ mark.lloyd@fph-tr.nhs.uk

Paul A Reilly, consultant rheumatologist

Frimley Park Hospital, Frimley, Surrey GU16 7UJ


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