South Birmingham podiatrists first to get Lorenzo

05 Sep 2008

Podiatrists at South Birmingham Primary Care Trust have become the first in the country to receive a version of iSoft’s Lorenzo software under the NHS National Programme for IT.

The podiatrists began to use the service after the system went live a week ago. In a statement to EHI NHS Connecting for Health said. "We can confirm the Lorenzo system went live in the first Early Adopter site on 3 September.”

The spokesperson added: “Clinicians have been using the system to support their work for the podiatry service at South Birmingham PCT”.

The PCT told EHI: “We are working with the Strategic Health Authority and CSC as an early adopter PCT to provide experience and feedback to inform future rollouts"
It had been expected that Lorenzo would first go live at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, a signficantly more complex acute trust.

A CSC spokesperson said the trust was still working towards an unspecified go-live date. “Morecambe Bay is in the final stages for preparation of “go live”. We are working with the Trust to ensure the timescale does not conflict with their other business priorities."

Due to have gone live in early summer Morecambe Bay is known to have been testing the software for several months. The trust failed to hit a planned June go-live date.

Instead the system was switched on last weekend at South Birmingham, making the PCT the first early adopter site to provide some of its staff with live use of the system. The third ‘early adopter’ site due to take Lorenzo is Bradford.

Under a programme called ‘Penfield’ the Lorenzo software is meant to be delivered in four releases. Release one has now been delivere, release two is due in November 2008; release three from July 2009; and release four from March 2010.

The software is the core Care Records Software to be installed in NHS trusts across the North Midlands and East of England by Computer Sciences Corporation under the NHS National Programem for IT.

The initial implementation comes four years after iSoft first promised delivery of Lorenzo. The R1 software, which is not spine compliant, is designed to offer trusts some initial clinical benefits. It is understood to offer requests and results reporting (though not requesting), some views of electronic patient records, and some elements of a patient administration system. A full PAS is provided is meant to follow in R2 due by the end of 2008.

In May the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority said it now expected to complete roll-out of Lorenzo by 2016.

Reader's Comments

Pinch me

hilldunnassoc@btinternet.com

06 Sep 08 14:43

Forgive me - have I fallen asleep and woken up on 1st April? "South Birmingham Podiatrists first to get Lorenzo"? Sorry, it may be a cheap jibe, but pull the other one.

errr....

06 Sep 08 19:10

hooray, podiatrists get clinical system. Three cheers. hip, hip......anyone?

LORENZO delivery dates

06 Sep 08 23:54

According to a previous report ("IBA tells investors Lorenzo will November") ...."The Australian company said the first version of its long delayed Lorenzo strategic software will have a “global launch” this November. A more advanced version containing ‘clinicals’ is then promised to follow within three months..."

Accoring to this story ...."Under a programme called ‘Penfield’ the Lorenzo software is meant to be delivered in four releases. Release one has now been delivered, release two is due in November 2008; release three from July 2009; and release four from March 2010..."

It should be noted that release three is the "Clinicals" functionality - so the delivery date has already changed (in just a few weeks) and would appear to have slipped by three months already.

Holland

08 Sep 08 12:36

At the Healthcare Exhibition in April of this year, on the iSOFT stand, they were showing a version of Lorenzo that was live in Holland. I asked why were they showing a version we are not allowed to have. If that version is working but the CfH isn't.

Unfortunately CSC were not on the stand. They were on the Alert stand, the Portugese system they are offering as a stop gap to sites that cannot wait.

So if CSC are not confident enough to be on the iSOFT stand or even have their own stand it becomes more of a worry.

Lorenzo's Oily

08 Sep 08 17:07

So when someone from Cornwall needs a corn plaster in Newcastle they can......

Primary objective achieved

09 Sep 08 15:26

"Lorenzo deployed in NHS" and the heat's off at Parliamentary question time in time for the new Session.

See also 'deployments' of GP Summary, ETP, Map of Medicine, Secondary Uses, Millenium etc [cont'd p94 of glowing NAO Report].

Meanwhile (not even) in the small print - user numbers; organisational objectives met; benefits realised; seamless messaging rates; application uptime; "I can break my foot in Newcastle and access my medical record in Cornwall".

(post edited by EHI)

What are the podiatrists getting?

maryhawking@tigers.demon.co.uk

09 Sep 08 20:02

"The R1 software, which is not spine compliant, is designed to offer trusts some initial clinical benefits. It is understood to offer requests and results reporting (though not requesting), some views of electronic patient records, and some elements of a patient administration system. A full PAS is provided is meant to follow in R2 due by the end of 2008."

Not spine compliant - so one assumes not linked to PDS?

How are the demographics imported, and do the podiatrists have free access to PDS for the whole of England (the usual model), the whole of the county, or just the people on their workload? R1, apparently, offers some views of electronic patient records.

The only EPRs - at present - are held in GP systems.

*Are* there any EPRs in this release of Lorenzo? and if so, where are they derived from? Are they limited to certain GP systems? Is the access limited to areas of legitimate concern to podiatrists? If so, who has decided, and is the decision and the logic for those decisions in the public domain? It would be good to know the details: are they available?

Spine compliant

10 Sep 08 09:08

"The R1 software, which is not spine compliant,"

... but is interfaced with iPM which is.

The real question is "how much many clinical documents are currently available and when will the rest be delivered - and by whom?" As another commentator put it size is important - a handful of podiatrists is one thing a whole Trust of 3 or 4,000 staff is quite another.

The change management and data migration challenges of moving, say, all CSC's NHS customers in the West Midlands from iPM to Lorenzo R2 will be interesting to watch from afar and a nightmare to go through.

Spine compliant

10 Sep 08 17:08

Think the phrase not spine copmpliant is badly worded. It should say is not Spine Connected. The demographics are fed from iPM (one way only). Release 2 of Lorenzo includes the PAS functionality of iPM and therefore replaces iPM into a single system.

Not sure what mary means by EPR views ? and limited to certain GP systems. The PDS is demographics only remember as well and accessed via iPM.

Can we all not just be happy that the system is no longer vapourware, although it will be interesting as stated when a whole Trust is live and not limited to a Podiatry service.

Be happy?

11 Sep 08 16:37

"Can we all not just be happy that the system is no longer vapourware, although it will be interesting as stated when a whole Trust is live and not limited to a Podiatry service."

After 4 long years, countless amounts of money been spent, investors loosing the shirts of their backs, trusts been lumbered with ancient creaking functionality, milestones coming and going, rebranding of old products and calling them release 1 etc etc, you expect people to be positive about this whole fiasco?

Excuse me, I need to go and lie down.

"Spine Compliant" - equally confused!

maryhawking@tigers.demon.co.uk

14 Sep 08 10:56

The article says "The R1 software, which is not spine compliant, is designed to offer trusts some initial clinical benefits. It is understood to offer requests and results reporting (though not requesting), some views of electronic patient records, and some elements of a patient administration system. A full PAS is provided is meant to follow in R2 due by the end of 2008." My understanding was that Millennium R0 was "not spine compliant" and the effect of that was that NHS smartcards and RBAC were not supported - and presumably access to PDS and C&B were also unavailable (although C&B does not appear to be that type of a problem!) If this version of Lorenzo is not spine compliant, but is fed demographics by iPMS, the same question remains: Whose demographics? patients registered for treatment with the service, or all potential patients? The release offers "some views of electronic patient records": anyone got any knowledge of the meaning of this in this application? e.g. can the podiatrists keep their own records and see them again (which would be useful)? or does it mean that they can see other organisations records (but only some of them) without being able to keep their own? As one of the other commentators pointed out, the specifications for the various functions contained in any Lorenzo release seem to change rather rapidly - so just checking! I sincerely hope that the podiatrists find this really fit for purpose - and are better at smart cards than the rest of us!

Incentive?

max.lock@live.co.uk

16 Sep 08 15:05

What incentives are there for these PCT early adopters. I would like to know why any trust would put medical and none medical staff through it.

The over worked and under paid having to put up with the additional stress and disruption all because of the under worked and over paid ICT departments at the Trusts decide they want to be the first, why? someone please explain!