11.09.15
NHS IT system and its CIO bag global excellence awards
The Care and Identity Service (CIS), an NHS IT system that allows access to systems for almost a million staff, scooped a global excellence award for enterprise and IT architecture in healthcare.
The leader behind CIS and director of information and assurance at the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), Rob Shaw, was also named European Chief Information Officer of the Year – both in recognition of the project and the delivery of other NHS IT systems.
Shaw said: “It’s fantastic news that NHS IT systems have been recognised globally. IT infrastructure is like the pipes that supply your water, or the cables that provide your electricity. Without it, we would be living and working in a very different way.
“Much of the work goes unnoticed and in many ways that’s a good thing as we want the users of those services to be able to focus on direct patient care. But it is particularly pleasing to get this award for CIS, which is so important for patient safety, verifying the identity of authorised professionals, for access to important patient information, and for access to the many transactions that are vital to the day-to-day running of the NHS.”
CIS, which was launched earlier this year with external development partner Mastek, manages digital identities for those who need access to the NHS’s national IT service, Spine, to support patient care.
The digital identity service makes use of smartcard technology to ensure secure access and filter relevant information.
Spine is the “technological backbone” of the state service, thus warranting “secure and appropriate” levels of access for all healthcare workers.
There are more than 900,000 smartcards in use currently, and 250,000 connect to Spine daily.
Shaw added: “Personally, I am also delighted with my award, but it is dedicated to everyone who has worked to make Spine, CIS and the Secondary Uses’ Service a success. These systems are crucial to the success of the NHS, and whilst we want them to run so smoothly that frontline staff take them for granted, it is still important that their success is recognised.”
The two awards were received at the iCMG World Summit hosted in Bangalore, India on 8 and 9 September.
In September 2014, the Spine system was “successfully rebuilt” with more than a dozen national IT systems and services being migrated to the new platform.
The changes constituted the new Spine 2, built in-house by the HSCIC in collaboration with agile software specialists BJSS after months of planning and testing.
It was developed after months of because it was time to review and update the service in line with “latest policy and new technology”.