Technical report: Digital Healthcare Projects Policy Executive Summary

Whilst the policies of the centre are designed to support a focused effort researching the field of information and communication technologies (ICTs), including increasingly pervasive communication networks, it is recognised that increasing processing power and the ability to transfer more information faster through both wired and wireless systems means that the developments will also include increased ability to search, filter and share both data and information. Our approach is to find new ways in which technologies can be used to meet the challenges facing health and healthcare in the next 10–15 years. ICTs can both enable and drive change in health and healthcare, and this raises social issues as well as technical ones. Particularly important is that ICTs may drive healthcare towards treating patients nearer (or in) their homes, putting greater emphasis upon bringing the patient more actively into the processes supporting their own healthcare contributing to the transition from the traditional ‘paternalistic’ model to one of negotiation and wider information sharing. . These technologies will generate vast amounts of health-related data. These data are made available to appropriate groups in a timely fashion. It must be processed to yield useful information. This raises questions about how any information generated is used. How is the data analysed? Who owns patient data? Most importantly, who should have access to patient data? The PSC policy documents aim to be both specific yet offer general advice. The intention is to provide cohesive guidance for projects and collective research effort yet provide specific direction to individuals that focus upon their needs. The field cross sections healthcare, pervasive systems and ECS groups. For this reason computer scientists offer to support this process through the provision of tools to steer users through establishing the most appropriate contacts and technology bases inside the pervasive systems centre so as to help find the ‘right’ technology partner and assist in building comprehensive records for collaborative efforts