Integration: the benefits of strategic thinking

It can be tempting to see integration as a relatively quick and easy fix to get applications working together. However, organisations that take a short term approach to integration may find that they are storing up problems for the future.

Jon Payne, sales engineering manager at InterSystems, points out that there is more to integration than application messaging; careful attention to workflows and interfaces is also critical for success. Integration services can also be hard to scale and maintain; something that works well for three or four interfaces may not work for 30 or 40.

A strategic approach to integration helps to address these issues, by putting business and clinical drivers at the heart of integration projects and making sure that integration services are both scalable and sustainable.

NHS Yorkshire and the Humber has taken a strategic approach to integration in its region, by choosing a single trust integration platform, InterSystems Ensemble, and a single preferred service partner, ReStart Consulting, to support acute trusts in using it. The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust has put Ensemble at the heart of a strategic approach to integration.

Meanwhile, as it prepares to replace its patient administration system, Luton and Dunstable NHS Foundation Trust has been able to move from a complex architecture with more than 50 point to point interfaces between applications to a much simpler architecture with a single interface for users.

For more information: visit the InterSystems UK website.

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	Q&A: Jon Payne Jon Payne, manager, sales engineering at InterSystems, discusses every aspect of interoperability: from the merits of top-down and bottom-up approaches, to the need for standards and IHE, and the benefits of strategic thinking.
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