Miscellaneous

This page has nothing to do with GPUK.net services, but here we put an assortment of items and links that may be of interest to those of you visiting this site.

If there is something that you would like to share with the GP community then please feel free to send us a link and/or an article. Send to editorial@gpuk.net. We don't promise to display your submission, but we are open to including diverse items.

1. Scanning of Correspondence into your Clinical System
   
   
2. Open Exeter - Access your Practice Financial and Other Records held on the HA Computers
   
   
3. Medix UK
   
   
4. GPnotebook
   
   
5. GPUK.net Bugzilla
   
   
6. GPUK.net InfoWiki
   
   
7. More articles under preparation.
   
   

Scanning of Clinical Correspondence

Many practices are drowning under paper and looking to go paperless. One major obstacle is that even if we stop generating paper we still have to handle paper that arrives in the practice - hospital letters in particular - and it looks like being a long time before hospitals will be routinely communicating with us electronically.

Increasingly practices are scanning and OCR'ing correspondence to enter it into their clinical computer system. Here are a Word Macro to facilitate pasting of scanned text into InPractice Vision Clinical System (with minor modifications should also be usable on other systems), and a Report which was prepared as part of an HA R&D project on scanning, and which describes the directory structure which works with the macro presented here.

• Update
• The macro linked above is the original version written for use with Vision 2.
• After upgrading to Vision 3 some small changes were made to enable it continue working the same way, and this version is available here.
• An improved and rewritten version of the macro is now available to make use of the extra attachments facilities in Vision 3. Get it here.
• The macro code includes comments which may help you to adapt it to other circumstances such as other ways of using Vision and for use with other clinical systems. If you need help with this email simon.child@gpuk.net.

Open Exeter - Access your Practice Financial and Other Records held on the HA Computers

You can now directly access the information about your practice held on some of the HA databases, notably month and quarter end payments (available a week or two before the quarter end :-), cytology data transferred from other areas, registration data etc.

You need to register for the service, and the application needs to be countersigned by your HA. The application form is available at the URL's below, and there is also a demonstration of the service.

https://nww.openexeter.nhsia.nhs.uk (NHSnet only)

www.nhsia.nhs.uk/nhais/pages/products/vaprod/openexe

Note that passwords automatically expire after 28 days and that you will be unable to login. So to avoid having to keep phoning the NHSIA to sort out expired passwords, make sure that you login every two to three weeks whether you need to or not, and change your password as soon as you login so that the new password will be valid for another 28 days.

They are also, using part of this technology, piloting access for patients to their own computerised medical records at participating GP practices. Security is partly through only permitting access from designated ip addresses within NHSnet, and partly by identification of individual patients by thumbprint scanners.

Medix

www.medix-uk.com have a wide variety of medical and non-medical resources and links. They carry out original research by asking you to (optionally) complete brief (usually well under five minutes) questionnaires. To tempt you to participate they enter you into a draw each time you complete a questionnaire - prizes include laptops, and the author has one of those to prove that they do indeed come up with the goods :-)) Topics are very varied and by no means are only or even mostly pharmaceutical company topics.

GPnotebook

An article on the clinical reference resource GPnotebook.

GPUK.net Bugzilla

GPUK.net Bugzilla is a resource for all UK GP's who have a computerised clinical software system from any supplier. It is a dynamic database for submitting and searching bug reports. Follow the link to find out more. It is not directly part of the GPUK.net service, but it has been setup by GPUK.net as a service to the GP community, it is hosted on the GPUK.net webserver, and you may use it to report bugs in the GPUK.net service as well as those in your clinical software.

GPUK.net InfoWiki

What is a Wiki or an InfoWiki? It is a free resource site for British General Practices.

Visitors can browse and search the site for any information recorded there. The can also submit their own information for the benefit of future visitors. But with a Wiki there is no need to submit your contribution to someone else for approval, you just directly type it into the website yourself. All the pages can be edited by visitors, so collaborative working is enabled. A tutorial can be gradually knocked into shape by several contributors. A tip on some matter can be left for others to find in the future.

Does it sound a bit anarchic that anyone can edit any page?? It's true that pages could be "vandalised", but older versions are stored in our database and can easily be restored. The advantage of flexibility outweighs the disadvantage of possible tinkering or graffiti.

The advantage over a web forum or mailing list is that instead of searching archives for a collection of articles on a topic, on a Wiki a single coherent document on the topic can be created.

The advantage over a standard website is that the content is much more fluid, and subject to direct peer review.

The best thing is simply to try it. Have a look at InfoWiki here, and try out the easy editing, perhaps in the Sandbox which is a "scratchpad" for practising.

Most of all, add your information and tips for the benefits of future visitors, and search and see if there is anything of interest to you.