Future of Health with the Cloud – Deploy Mobile Apps with NDL
Rarely has there been such an opportunity to revolutionise the way we work and to drive time savings in the daily lives of clinicians as that presented by mobile business applications. Over the last few years at NDL we have been working with a select group of NHS Trusts who have been leading in the application of this technology to their day to day business processes and the results have been truly transformative.
For clarity, we are not talking of clinicians using devices for email and calendar, this is more or less a ‘given’ these days, with much noise and excitement having been made about the acquisition of ‘devices galore’. At NDL however, we have been focussing on the next generation of mobile working, making sure that clinical staff have access to the right information to support their clinical processes and allowing them to capture key information at the ‘point of care’. This could be on the ward or in the community, using the most appropriate device available at the time, irrespective of mobile or wireless signal coverage.
The results of this paradigm shift are surprising in many ways. Not only do we enhance the availability of information for decision making, in almost every case, the accuracy, security and governance surrounding that information is increased dramatically as it is built throughout the whole process. Clinicians also consistently report significant job satisfaction increases too, as apart from the obvious savings in terms of time to and froing between settings, they are able to focus on their vocation and application of their skills, spending more time on care with both the patient and carers.
At a management level we are seeing changes too with greater resource visibility and flexibility, let alone the financial savings. Although, it has to be acknowledged that it is often within the management processes and culture that the greatest changes are often needed to embrace these new working practices, despite the savings.
Delivering these successes for Trusts’ does not come about via a big EPR vendor supplying their system on a tablet device. It is a ground up revolution, empowering the Trust to provide the multitude of apps that meet needs as they arise. This means getting the right app to the right group of clinicians in the right setting in a timely fashion and without having to embark on ‘mega projects’ of great technical complexity, length or cost. Indeed, most of the time it is simply a case of leveraging the power of the devices and back office systems a Trust has already invested in.
The platform
This is where the NDL MX platform has come into its own for a rapidly growing number of NHS Trusts. It allows them to create multiple applications quickly and simply, working in a way that can involve clinicians to rapidly prototype what they want. Adopting this approach is the key to success with users. These apps in turn can integrate with existing back office systems so they can draw on information from multiple sources as the NDL platform supports a wide range of integration models including our own unique integration technology platform. Although admittedly some basic knowledge of scripting is needed, all of this is aimed at the business analyst type app creator rather than the traditional ‘expert’ IT developer.
Once the clinicians are happy that an app does what they need and works in a way they are happy with, then the app is published via the MX App Server which allows IT management to make sure that all these business apps are managed in a professional way, including full domain integration, security and audit information available. From this central point, apps can be deployed remotely, upgraded or withdrawn. All of these controls are available by device, user, group or application. In addition to this, as all data is encrypted with 256-bit algorithms whist in transit as well as ‘at rest’ and as each Trust’s MX platform can run on Microsoft’s Azure platform in their super secure UK Data Centres, the MX comes with everything a dev/ops or governance team might want or need.
The Apps
There are now more apps built with the NDL platform, in the hands of more clinicians and staff in more NHS Trusts than from any other vendor. From Medications to Meals and with the introduction of the MX Public Store Edition, this expands the reach of a Trust’s apps from Practitioners to Patients, helping deliver better outcomes for all.
Get in touch
If you would like to talk to us about what this revolutionary mobile opportunity could mean in practice for your organisation, why not get in touch via info@ndl.co.uk? On our website www.ndl.co.uk you will find a wide range of case studies in print and video and don’t forget to check out our App showcase while on the site. Here you can see a selection of apps developed by other customers and partners which are downloadable for customers through the NDL user group.
Join other NHS trusts at our events
Visit our website www.ndl.co.uk for customer case studies and see what other Trusts are already doing with NDL.
