Fortrus Ltd will be exhibiting at iLINKS Innovations 2017

iLINKS Innovations is an annual conference and exhibition dedicated to showcasing innovation and technology and exploring the benefits that this can deliver across health and social care, ranging from improved outcomes for patients to key efficiency gains. Organised by NHS Informatics Merseyside, on an annual basis the event attracts the most senior clinical and technology leaders from the local NHS and wider health and social care sector.

Now in its seventh year, the 2017 event will be taking place on Wednesday 5 July 2017 at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool.

Key themes

‘Acting as one’ to transform healthcare

As the beating heart of our health service, our doctors, nurses and wider health care professionals rely on having access to timely and accurate information in order to make informed decisions about care delivery. To support this and achieve the ambitions of NHS England’s Five Year Forward View and Personalised Health and Care 2020, care providers are committed to ‘acting as one’ with the ultimate aim of transforming care through digital technology – ensuring records are created, held and accessed electronically and that all care providers are able to work seamlessly together through interoperable systems, with patients empowered to take more control over their own health and wellbeing.

This year, #iLINKS17 shares the local journey as a leader in digital care and innovation, showcasing the ground-breaking work surrounding information sharing and assistive technology, which is making a real difference to frontline care delivery and patient experience. Three shared digital ambitions will underpin this year’s conference and exhibition:

A connected health and social care economy

Locally there is a shared vision that every health and social care practitioner will have direct electronic access to the information they need, at the point of care, in order to facilitate improved decision-making, joined-up care provision and better patient experiences and outcomes. To date, some significant work has taken place surrounding information sharing and system interoperability, which has been clinically led and held in high regard both nationally and internationally.

Digitally empowered individuals

Health services locally will be co-designed with input from patients and health care professionals in order to shape future service provision around the needs of neighbourhoods and localities. To help improve the health and wellbeing of the local population, individuals will be able to access and contribute to their own care record and will be supported to remain independent with the help of innovative assistive technologies.

Exploiting the digital revolution

North Mersey local health economy stands out as a leader in digital care and innovation, exploring the latest technological innovations in order to improve the health and wellbeing of the local population. As a region, there are four NHS providers who are amongst the most technologically advanced in the country. Known as ‘digital exemplars’, these care providers will be the first to be paper-free and will be internationally recognised, delivering exceptional care, efficiently, through the world-class use of digital technology and information flows, both within and beyond their organisation boundary.

About the iLINKS Informatics Transformation Programme

The integration of health and social care information remains a key priority both locally and nationally in order to deliver high quality care consistently, whether in the home, community or hospital care setting.

Across Liverpool and Sefton, there are some significant challenges facing care provision locally including an ageing population, unacceptable inequalities in health, as well as wide variation in the quality of and access to services.

In order to address these issues, reform is needed, and as a health and social care economy, there is growing recognition that the transformation of care services requires a collaborative approach involving information sharing and a commitment to harness the benefits of innovation and technology.

These aims form the very basis of an ambitious programme of work, which is underway across North Mersey, to deliver safe and efficient ‘seamless’ care through the development of a joined up information exchange across health and social care services.

The approach for achieving this vision is detailed within the iLINKS Informatics Transformation Strategy, which pulls together the strategic priorities of the Healthy Liverpool and Shaping Sefton transformation programmes with the aim of giving all health and social care practitioners access to relevant information to care for individuals regardless of the care setting or organisation where the information is held.