The PRIMIS+ Award in Data Quality and Information Management in General Practice is in high demand with the February and March 2011 cohorts already full.

Applications are already being taken for the April, May and June cohorts.

Enrolments will continue to take place on a rolling schedule throughout the first half of the year, but places will of necessity be limited.

The Department of Health has commissioned The NHS Information Centre (The NHS IC) for health and social care to develop a Children and Young People’s Health Services dataset in collaboration with key stakeholders including representatives from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Royal College of Nursing, the Healthcare Commission/Care Quality Commission, Public Health Observatories, the Institute of Child Health, National Screening Committee, Contact a Family as well as representatives from local organisations. The dataset is designed to meet information needs at all levels, from national requirements to those of local provider organisations and commissioners of services, through extraction or derivation from local clinical and administrative systems.

Prevalence queries have been developed by PRIMIS+ and form the first stage of the new Data Quality Query Set. The Prevalence query will examine the recording of diagnosis, in particular, morbidities which do not currently feature in the QOF.Prevalence query releasedDrug to Disease queries, to examine the completeness of a practice’s recording, will also soon follow as part of the new Data Quality Query Set.Prevalence query released

For more information on both, please visit the Query Libraries page. To download the library containing Prevalence, please log in to the Profile Centre.

From January 2011, PRIMIS+ will be offering an award in Data Quality and Information Management in General Practice. Following an initial announcement at their annual conference in September, PRIMIS+ has now released details of the award, which will be accredited by NCFE, a national awarding body.

The CHART Query library for the seasonal Flu collection is due to be released on Monday 25 October. The query is now available, and can be downloaded from the PRIMIS+ Profile Centre.

Presentations, posters and an online evaluation form focusing on the 2010 PRIMIS+ Conference have now been added to the Conference section of the PRIMIS+ website.

Congratulations to all of the poster and exhibitor competition winners at the 2010 PRIMIS+ Conference.

Taking place at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham, the 200 delegates in attendance voted for their favourite poster from the 22 submitted.

Keynote speaker, Jeanette Davies, Head of Information, Contract & Information Shared Services Unit (CISSU) will be presenting at the annual PRIMIS+ Conference. Taking place on Day 2 of the annual event the session is entitled: ‘Secondary Care Data Flows for Commissioning’ and will focus on how to prepare your organisation for challenges in the future NHS.

To register for the conference or to view the latest programme please visit the conference section of the website or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Facilitators, why not enter the PRIMIS+ poster competition and get your free delegate place for this year’s Conference. Alternatively, attend the conference for free by submitting a 500 word case study about your good work in a practice.

Facilitators who intend to enter the poster competition or who wish to apply for the case study delegate offer should NOT register for the conference. You will be advised how to register after we have accepted your entry.

To find out more about either the poster competition or the case study delegate offer email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  You can also visit the 2009 conference web pages to view the high standard of entries to last year's poster competition.

PRIMIS+ invites you to come and visit us at stand 52 at the forthcoming Management in Practice event taking place at the Business Design Centre, London on Wednesday 1 September 2010.  Management in Practice events are designed to address the ever expanding role and responsibilities of today's primary care general practice managers.

The PRIMIS+ team will be on hand to answer your questions, while providing demonstrations of CHART and CHART Online - the free data analysis software designed by GPs for GPs.

To visit the PRIMIS+ exhibition stand and register as a delegate for this event please visit www.managementinpractice.com.

With commissioning being high on the NHS agenda, PRIMIS+ has dedicated several conference sessions to this important topic in its forthcoming annual conference. This year’s event will look at commissioning solutions currently operating within primary care.

Special conference offers for Facilitators, PCT and Practice staff

Facilitators, practice and PCT staff who are registered to Level 2 on the PRIMIS+ Profile Centre are invited to attend the annual event at a subsidised rate.

• Offer One: Attend both days for only £120

• Offer Two: Attend both days and the conference dinner for only £140

For more information and to find the link to this special offer please visit the conference section of the website. The link to this offer can also be found in the PRIMIS+ Profile Centre (please note: you will only see the ‘Conference Registration’ link if you are registered to Level 2).

If you want to take advantage of this great offer please ensure you register using the correct form – you must login to the Profile Centre to register for the Facilitator and Level 2 offer.

Keynote speakers at this year’s event include Dr Mark Davies, Medical Director, The NHS Information Centre (The NHS IC) for health and social care who will talk more about the role of The NHS IC and PRIMIS+ in improving data quality within the NHS in light of the recently released White Paper.

'Survival of the Fittes'” – a conference designed to help prepare you, your organisation and its data for the NHS of the future.

If you need to know more about commissioning, clinical coding, audit, data accreditation, risk modelling - then this event is for you. Through training and accounts of practical experiences, you will gain valuable insights and information to take back to your organisation and use in the challenging times ahead. Can you afford to miss the PRIMIS+ Conference 2010?

Training Design and Delivery has been added to the PRIMIS+ training curriculum and is now available on the Learning Centre. The new unit will help learners develop skills in planning and delivering training events. It aims to support facilitators who cascade training to practice staff and provides useful tips to improve training delivery. Other PCT staff involved in training design and delivery will also find the training useful.

As part of the reworked Analysis and Interpretation of General Practice Clinical Data (AICD) unit, two new online lessons have been developed. The lessons entitled ‘Analysing and Interpreting Data’ and ‘Presenting the Outputs of Analysis’ have been translated from face to face into rich online learning. We continue to provide face to face training with a Learning Consultant providing an opportunity for learners to put into practice the analysis and interpretative skills learned online beforehand.

The Data Extraction in General Practice (DEGP) training unit now has two new online lessons as part of its revamp. The elements ‘Principles of Data Extraction’ and ‘Understanding MIQUEST’ have been translated from face to face into rich online learning. We continue to provide opportunities to run queries in a practice with a Learning Consultant (LC) on hand, but now facilitators can put into action what has been learned online and maximise their support time with an LC to focus on application of skills.

A new case study looking at the experiences of facilitators who have joined a Learning Network is now available. The case study entitled ‘Networking to Improve Quality and Results’ provides an insight into two particular groups, and highlights the benefits of setting up a network and pooling expertise. Providing a supportive environment in which to share best practice and swap problem solving tips has proved helpful for those featured in the case study.

Read the full case study and learn more about how to set up a network and about the benefits of joining one. To get your own copy of this case study please complete the online publications order form.

PRIMIS+ stakeholders have raised concern about the threat to healthcare informatics, caused by the current economic climate.

PRIMIS+ facilitators have been encouraged to help their practices improve the recording of childhood immunisations in an attempt to avoid outbreaks of life-threatening infectious diseases.

A case study focusing on the work being carried out in London to implement a standardised approach to GP recording is now available here.

PRIMIS+ have introduced new features to the website. The first is a new events calendar which you can find under the Events tab within the site menu. The events calendar is now integrated within the site navigation and it allows you to choose how to view it. There is also search facility within. Events recorded in the calendar are now included in the general site search as well.

Local Information, News and Knowledge for clinical System users

Wednesday 23rd June 2010 – Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool

Following on from the iLINKS National Winter Conference in January 2009, Liverpool Primary Care Trust is set to host its next national conference.

Files:

File	Description	File size
iLINKS Booking Form - June 2010.doc		236 Kb
iLINKS National Agenda.doc		233 Kb

Anybody wishing to get to grips with CHART and its query libraries can now find out all they need to know with the 'CHART Library PowerPoint Tool'.

There is also a section focusing on CHART Online, which describes how practices can upload their data to compare it with their peers.

To find out more and download the 'CHART Library PowerPoint Tool'.

Nominations are now being accepted for the Management in Practice Awards, which recognise the work done by practice managers and nurses working in primary care.

Files:

File	Description	File size
Nurses in Practice Award	Information Pack	131 Kb
Management in Practice Award	Information Pack	440 Kb

NHS West Midlands has increased the importance placed on data quality across the region, following a project conducted with PRIMIS+ to ensure equality and consistency of patient records.

You can download a case study exploring what this will mean for practices and how it was achieved.

A recent PRIMIS+ survey showed overwhelming support for professional recognition for those working in health informatics, so why is the sector yet to receive this status?

Visitors to the PRIMIS+ website have made it clear that they want health informatics to be a profession in its own right.

Results for the latest PRIMIS+ website poll show that 54 of the 62 (87%) respondents believe that it is important to belong to a recognised profession.

A new question has now been added to the 'have your say' survey on our website, asking ‘Do you think that the current financial climate and the expected constraints on NHS budgets, will have an impact on data quality in your area?’

NB. The PRIMIS+ poll is no longer availble.

The PRIMIS+ Online Learning Centre has just been enhanced with a new resource aimed at helping learners get the most out of their online experience.

As more PCTs are asked to roll out the use of summary care records, PRIMIS+ caught up with an early adopter to find out what is involved in the process.

In the online case study Facilitator and SCR Lead at Wakefield PCT, Emma Mullaney, explains the approach used, problems encountered and successes enjoyed in her practices.

You can read the case study online.

'As new health IT systems are delivered across the NHS in primary and secondary care, health professionals and health IM&T staff are being confronted with major migrating decisions on a daily basis. These can be life changing decisions for patients in our care.'

PRIMIS+ have provided training to almost 300 people after being asked to develop awareness in PCTs about to implement the Summary Care Record (SCR).

PCTs across the country are making use of CHART Online to analyse and compare data obtained from CHART query libraries.