National Allied Health Professionals Informatics Strategic Taskforce

As we know, the past six months has seen a great deal of change within the Health Service. This change has, as with everywhere else, been evident within the informatics department of the NHS, with the new Health and Social Care Informatics Centre (HSCIC) coming into operation at the beginning of April. This new department is vitally important to all future developments within the Health Service and was emphasised when Mark Davis visited the National Allied Health Professionals Informatics Strategic Taskforce (NAHPIST). Mark is the director of clinical and public assurance, and it was in this meeting that the power of the information we all create was highlighted. In future, all developments within patient care will have to be supported by evidence, and information technology (IT) will support these rather than vice versa, as has been the case in some NHS change programmes. Not only this, but the information we produce will have to be made available to this new body when they request it; therefore, the way information is collated will have to be robust, accessible and in a format that can be easily transferred.