A professional body for people working in health
informatics has been formed to improve their status and ensure high
standards as IT becomes increasingly important to health care,
writes John Kavanagh.
The UK Council for Health Informatics Professions is being set up
by the BCS, the NHS Information Authority, the UK Institute for
Health Informatics, and Assist, an NHS IT staff body. It will be
launched at the BCS Health Informatics Committee's annual
conference later this month.
"There is a growing consensus that there is a need to develop
health informatics as an independent profession," says the
council's first president, Glyn Hayes, who chairs the BCS Health
Informatics Committee and has been both a doctor and a supplier of
IT to the NHS.
"IT in the NHS used to be about admin and management, but now it is
about direct patient care. Good informatics can improve patient
care, but if we don't do informatics well, we kill people.
"General practice is very heavily computerised now, and if the IT
is wrong it will give the wrong information and advice. There is a
challenge to develop systems that are rigorous in safety-critical
terms. These issues demand a way of ensuring that health
informatics staff have appropriate qualifications and experience -
so there is a need for a professional registration body.
"It is also recognised that health informaticians are often
undervalued, inappropriately managed and poorly paid. Establishing
good professional standards will help improve this situation. IT
people will have the opportunity to gain professional status and
all that goes with it in terms of credibility and the value placed
on them."
The council covers IT staff; information and knowledge management
staff; those who develop or manage clinical record systems and the
patient data they hold; staff who handle health records and code
data; and academic staff concerned with health informatics and
related research.
The council will start by assessing the qualifications, codes of
conduct and standards of employer, professional and academic
bodies. Its main job will be to hold a register of accredited
health informaticians.
Hayes describes the council as being the equivalent of the General
Medical Council for doctors. "It is not part of the NHS, it is an
independent professional body, and with the support of the BCS and
NHS organisations it will have a lot of credibility," he
says.
"Initially registration will be voluntary, although it is expected
that in the future the NHS will expect anyone working in health
informatics to have obtained registration. It is envisaged that
eventually statutory registration will be needed to protect the
needs of patients."
www.ukchip.org
Details of the BCS Health Informatics Committee conference in
Harrogate from 24-26 March are at
www.health-informatics.org