The Information Centre for health and social care

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The Information Centre for health and social care

• Information at the heart of decision making
• HSUG, October 2006

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The new centre history background

• A Special Health Authority since 1st April 2005
• That has taken on
• information-management functions from former NHS
  Information Authority
• statistical functions from DH, including social
  care
• Independent Board
• Approx 350 posts
• Leeds based

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• Data are the most important and under-used assets
  in the health and social care system
• The transformation of data into information that
  is valued and used is fundamental to delivering
  better health and better services

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Information Centre Strategy

• Our visionInformation at the heart of decision
  making throughout Health and Social Care based
  on
• authoritative comparative data
• an independent perspective

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Our five strategic imperatives
Provide effective access to information
Deliver information of integrity
Support policy development and research
Promote an information culture
Be a dynamic, customer-focussed organisation
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Pro-active information broker

• Understanding and anticipating the nature of
  decisions across all levels of the health and
  social care system
• Translating these into comparative information
  needs
• Mapping current availability and quality of
  information
• Working in partnership with others to reduce
  duplication and fill the gaps
• Ensuring that data are properly managed,
  supported, shared and made more accessible in a
  timely way
• Setting and promoting standards in data
  collection and use
• Strengthening capacity for informed decision
  making especially through the use of comparative
  information and associated products

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• Understanding the current situation
• Developing policies and underpinning options
  appraisals
• Implementing new policies
• Informing decisions
• Managing the system
• Judging successes and failures
• Improving the system

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The key principles of good information

• Valued accepted as having authority and value.
  People understand it and are prepared to exchange
  it to achieve mutual benefits
• Straightforward to collect a natural and
  expected by-product of providing and using health
  and social care
• Meaningful always have relevance to its users,
  such that it improves and adapts to the way it is
  used to fulfil different purposes at different
  times
• Easy to access be available to people who need
  it when they need it, within clear and simple
  rules of access
• Used acquires value when it is used in the
  process of making decisions and achieving
  positive results

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Principles underpinning our work

• Collect data once only, use them many times
• be temperate in data requests no data
  collection for the sake of it
• share data across agencies (concordat)
• identify key data needs and reduce response
  burden
• promote access to data
• develop data policies
• permit deliberate replication, avoid ignorant
  duplication
• ensure that the value of the data is commensurate
  with the resources used to collect it
• deliver the data back to the providers

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• Working with signatories to Healthcare
  Commission-led Concordat to
• maximise streamlining and sharing of information
  and data collections
• assure data collections are necessary and add
  value
• eliminate collections where there is duplication
  or burden outweighs value.
• Developing authoritative assurance and approval
  process

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Tension between local and national needs

• Ideal situation the same information of value in
  serving both national and local needs, to reduce
  burden of data collection
• Worse situation national needs distort local
  priorities and demands are made for associated
  data collection without consideration of local
  resource implications
• Role of IC to act as honest broker between
  competing demands

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Improving access

• Information Catalogue
• Searchable list of central information
  collections relating to Health and Social Care.
• Work to improve usability and increase the number
  of, accuracy and amount of data given for each
  collection.
• Further major enhancements planned
• Foundation to co-ordinate and reduce
• collections.
• Available to all at
• http//www.ic.nhs.uk/infocat

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Dr Foster Intelligence

• Announced on 17 January 2006.
• The IC purchased half of the company Dr Foster
• Balanced board
• Purpose to make a step change in the development
  and delivery of valued added data services and
  products
• and to bring together the best of the private
  sector with public sector ethos
• To promote greater use of data
• Ensure that there is equal access to the data
  collected using public funds

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Current activities of the IC

• Developing Healthcare Resource Groups and other
  casemix tools for
• Reimbursement under Payment By Results
• Costing
• Benchmarking analysis
• Collecting and analysing the data for
• Quality and Outcomes Framework
• the GP and dental contracts
• pay negotiations
• prescribing costs
• NHS workforce
• NHS estates
• Supporting users of these data
• Updating national data standards, and ensuring
  compliance with international standards
  

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National Programme for IT

• Connecting for Health playing a leading role in
  addressing many of these issues
• Data collected once will be used many times
• Information will be shared
• Quality should be improved
• The Information Centre is
• the users interface to SUS
• responsible for the data which will not be
  collected through NPfIT
• tasked with developing value-added data
  services, and products

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Secondary uses service

• SUS is the pool of summary care records
• SUS designed to
• Store activity transactional data from CfH
  operational systems
• Provide analytical facilities analysis
• Replace NWCS incorporate HES
• Support Payment by Results
• Provide access to a broader range of data for
  secondary use purposes inc CAB, ETP
• Replace other existing facilities
• Staged development determined in part by the
  need to support NHS staff in meeting their
  information commitments

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SUS Utility
SUS Utility
SUS Facilities
SUS Developments
Data in SUS
05-2
06-A
06-B
07-A
07-B
05-5
SUS Release
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Strategic View

• Care Records Service
• Secondary Uses Service
• Care Record Guarantee
• Confidentiality - Code of Practice
• Data access based on -
• Patient identifiable data is only allowed to be
  used for purposes other than direct patient care
  in certain restricted circumstances

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SUS Overview
Users
Trusts
LSP systems (secure environment)
SUS (secure environment)
HES
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Information Governance

• Dialogue with
• CfH IG Team
• Care Record Development Board
• SCAG
• PIAG
• Research discussions with users
• Pseudonymisation study
• NHS staff through users groups
• Public health community
• Research community through CRC

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Opportunities

• Reduce need for use of identifiable data
• Provide exit strategy for existing access to
  identifiable data by offering alternative means
  of data storage and analysis
• Implement Information Governance
• Building trust on effective IG with public,
  patients relevant bodies

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SUS Architecture

• Similar model to HES
• Separation of activity demographics
• Link via pseudonymised identifier field or SUSID
• Dissenting patients - no link to NHS No.
• Access to data
• No access to original data in secure database
• Data for users held in pseudonymised marts
• Same physical security as other CfH systems

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SUS Access Control

• SUS provides mechanisms for control
• Technology
• Supporting processes
• Potential users need to
• Establish rationale for access to data
• For patient identifiable data, obtain approval
  (e.g. S60) independent of SUS
• Register appropriately

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Some key messages

• SUS has robust architecture in a secure
  environment
• Full controls on access to any SUS data
• Patient identifiable data still needs to be
  stored accessed in controlled manner
• SUS provides opportunity to reduce need for
  analytical systems with patient identifiable data
• SUS can be used in developing cultural change on
  use of identifiable data within NHS