NHS Wales to use information management for paediatric diabetes
A new project in Wales will enable all NHS Wales Paediatric Diabetes Units to collect patient information in a consistent manner.
The national project, funded by the Welsh government, involves the All-Wales Diabetes Implementation Group in partnership with The Children and Young People’s Wales Diabetes Network.
The project has commissioned Hicom’s paediatric diabetes patient management solution, Twinkle. Twinkle is a web-based information management system designed to help services manage paediatric patients with diabetes.
Research from Diabetes UK estimates that around 31,500 children and young people in the UK have diabetes. The new project hopes that paediatric units across Wales can collect patient management in a regular and efficient way.
Units across Wales will have Twinkle implemented into their service, resulting in total national coverage across NHS Wales. Units will be using Twinkle to reduce the reliance on paper based records. The web-based application will provide the standardisation of key care processes, data gathering and reporting.
The project hopes that Twinkle will make it easier for healthcare providers to measure performance and collate the information required for the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA).
Dr Christopher Bidder, Consultant Paediatrician and Clinical Lead for the Children & Young People’s Wales Diabetes Network (and Brecon Group) said: “I am delighted to see Twinkle being rolled out to paediatric units across Wales thanks to the funding agreed by the Welsh Government and the Diabetes Implementation Group. Our diabetes team in Swansea has been using Hicom’s Twinkle.Net for nearly two years now and it has transformed the day to day working of the team, our ability to understand our clinic data and how we generate our submission for the NPDA. A universal approach across Wales will undoubtedly aid checking of the Brecon register accuracy and in time will enable units to benchmark against each other.”
Jon Elburn, product manager for Clinical Information Systems at Hicom comments: “We are delighted to be extending the usage of Twinkle to the whole of Wales. Standardisation across the Principality will ensure that the quality of care is matched by the level of data collection in a uniform manner. Long term this will allow Hicom to aggregate the information at a national level and through the use of analytics tools we will work with clinicians to provide real insight into the patient experience across Wales.”
Written by Reece Armstrong
