New integration solution for Plymouth NHS ICT Shared Services
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Facing a major change in information technology provision, Plymouth NHS ICT Shared Services needed a new solution to integrate its clinical applications. By installing InterSystems Ensemble®, Plymouth NHS ICT Shared Services has protected its existing investment, can interface any system to any other system, and is well positioned to participate actively in the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT).
Plymouth NHS ICT Shared Services supports 15,000 users across the Plymouth Healthcare Community (which comprises the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, the Plymouth Teaching Primary Care Trust, and 63 general practitioner practices). Its responsibilities include looking after patient and clinical administration systems as well as specialist software for laboratories and general practitioners.
According to Andy Blofield, Head of Technology at Plymouth NHS ICT Shared Services, there are more than 20 different clinical applications linked to a central patient administration system via a complex series of interfaces.
“We have always preferred a best-of-breed approach,
buying the best clinical system we could and then
interfacing it.”
- Andy Blofield
Head of Technology
Plymouth NHS ICT Shared Services
This very successful policy means that the organisation makes wide-spread use of applications from iSOFT (an IBA Health Group Company). iSOFT’s iPM patient administration and iCM clinical management systems were usually linked to departmental systems through iSOFT’s iIE, the integration engine component of iPM.
Implementation of the NHS NPfIT will involve transferring iPM and iCM to a remote data centre in Maidstone run by local service provider CSC and this created a major problem for Plymouth. Several of their applications relied on receiving ad hoc data queries from these systems and this would no longer be possible. The Shared Services team had to find a new integration tool that could deal with this problem and one that was scalable, future proof, resilient and cost-effective. A rapid development environment with a good application programming interface was essential.
Ensemble scored highly in a thorough evaluation of possible solutions. It offered a high- performance object database to store metadata and messages and process state information. It also offered a powerful applications programming interface and intuitive management tools. And there was also an existing vendor relationship – InterSystems Caché® highperformance object database is a key component of Plymouth’s pathology systems, which will continue to be used.
“We also needed excellent support and training because we knew that we would be developing in a technology that was new to us. InterSystems understood what we were asking of them and the way interfaces were built. InterSystems has an excellent industry reputation too.”
- Andy Blofield
Head of Technology
Plymouth NHS ICT Shared Services
The decision to select Ensemble was made in July 2006, well ahead of the proposed systems move in 2008. InterSystems installed Ensemble with data shadowing facility server within Plymouth’s VMware environment on Windows 2003 servers and delivered classroom and practical training to a newly formed Plymouth integration team.
This team has since implemented more than ten new interfaces including links to remotely hosted radiology systems, an interface to iSOFT’s iIE to obtain iCM and iPM data, as well as links to maternity, infection control and histopathology applications. Working in partnership with the integration team, InterSystems development staff provided technical assistance with a complex interface between iCM and iLAB. Between them, they established an InterSystems-based local repository to hold patient demographic data for access by several other clinical systems.
Ensemble has proved to be a powerful and flexible tool, removing any worries about the proposed data centre move. Simple web services interfaces, such as the one between iPM and the Badger neonatal system, take only a couple of days to connect. InterSystems Ensemble provides a unified graphical, XML and code-based development environment for building custom adapters between applications.“Using InterSystems Ensemble, we have the capability to interface any system to any other system. Having seen the benefits of a professional trusted integration engine like InterSystems Ensemble, we wish we’d installed it years ago,” said Blofield.
“When you’re dealing with something like an integration
platform,
good support is absolutely vital. InterSystems’ professional training
and support services got us over the
initial learning curve.”
- Andy Blofield
Head of Technology
Plymouth NHS ICT Shared Services
This versatile connectivity offering different
ways of interfacing systems is made easier
through an intuitive graphical interface backed by
powerful scripting for complex data manipulation.
Ensemble provides an object-oriented environment
with a consistent abstraction layer for all of the
interfaces, mitigating maintenance and management.
This universal integration extends to several
development platforms including Microsoft .NET
and Java. By exporting new interface definitions
using XML, expertise and interface solutions may
be shared with other NHS trusts.
All this puts Plymouth NHS users in an enviable position. Before iPM and iCM are moved to Maidstone, new clinical systems can be quickly interfaced or changes easily made without compromising Plymouth’s participation in the NHS NPfIT. For example, all the relevant systems messaging will be replaced by the generic HL7 message set as defined by the NHS National Programme. The planned migration work is also being closely watched by other NHS trusts, which value iSOFT’s clinical healthcare solutions.“InterSystems’ support is outstanding and, as a product, InterSystems Ensemble meets everything that we’ve asked for,” said Blofield.
“InterSystems Ensemble is enabling us to build on our policy of investing in best-of-breed systems for our clinicians whilst tying them into the NHS National Programme strategy. Thanks to Ensemble, we can work in a way that’s cost effective, manageable and extensible.”
- Andy Blofield
Head of Technology
Plymouth NHS ICT Shared Services
Looking beyond the current project phase, Ensemble may be used to populate a data warehouse to enhance local management information and there are tentative longer-term plans to implement iSOFT’s LORENZO. Having taken integration to the next level, Plymouth NHS ICT Shared Services is ready to create new solutions that can be rapidly integrated with existing systems, support new business processes and ensure that data is made available where and when it is needed most.