Clanwilliam, the Irish-headquartered global healthcare technology group, met with over 70 care home managers and healthcare professionals last week at its event dedicated to unlocking the potential of digital transformation in Northern Ireland’s care home sector.

Delivered in partnership with Microsoft and the IHCP (Independent Health and Care Providers), the event ‘The Paperless Care Home’ focused on the impact of technology in care home settings, from effective bed management and medication and care monitoring, to patient engagement and improved feedback and communication loops.

Clanwilliam’s Epic Care, a cloud-based care home management software, took centre stage for the morning as long-time Epic Care customer Eddy Kerr, Hutchinson Care Homes and Shane Williamson, Clanwilliam Business Development Manager, discussed the positive impact of electronic patient records in care home settings – covering everything from safety to accessibility.

Pauline Shepherd (IHCP) gave participants important context on the wider aged care market in Northern Ireland and the crucial role it continues to play in the healthcare system.

Event partners, Microsoft, demonstrated the role devices such as the Microsoft Surface are playing in healthcare settings to support more agile and effective care delivery – and how they can be utilised specifically in aged care settings in conjunction with the Epic Care system.

Attendees also heard from ResHub, a resident experience platform, as they discussed the value that digital technologies can add for residents and their families; and patient feedback software, Doctify, showed the power of reviews and feedback in healthcare settings.

Eileen Byrne, Managing Director at Clanwilliam said: “We are delighted to have been able to host this invaluable event alongside Microsoft and the IHCP, providing crucial information and an opportunity to share ideas for the care home sector in Northern Ireland.”

“With over 25 years in the industry, we know what a central role technology can play in supporting better, safer, and more effective patient care across the healthcare market.

“There is a great deal of digital transformation opportunity within care homes to continue to support the excellent care they deliver, and we’re delighted to help provide platforms for this conversation.”

To find out more about Epic Care, visit www.epicsolutions.ie/epiccare/

Following a thorough accreditation process the National General Practice Information Technology (GPIT) Group has confirmed that Clanwilliam’s three GP systems – Socrates, Helix Practice Manager (HPM) and Health One – have again been accredited as part of their 2022 accreditation process.

The GPIT Group comprises representatives from the Irish College of General Practitioners, the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Department of Health. The aim of the GPIT Group is to promote the eHealth agenda in Ireland, in particular electronic communications and interoperability between GP and health service information systems. Certification of general practice software systems previously occurred in 1999, 2003, 2008, 2014 and 2018 and Clanwilliam’s systems have been certified in each of these previous reviews.

The GPIT run the certification process in order to:
• ensures that practice management systems support the requirements of general practice.
• help to coordinate the development of general practice systems with developments in health service information systems.
• promote interoperability between general practice systems and HSE systems.
• provide a roadmap for further development of the electronic health record.

The certification process involved a vendor self-assessment of their product and services against the certification test plan. Representatives of the GPIT then tested each system to ensure conformance with their requirements.

Speaking about the accreditation, Clanwilliam Health Managing Director, Eileen Byrne said: “The GPIT Accreditation is incredibly important to both our systems and our business. It effectively acts as a seal of approval from our key stakeholders and shows the value that Socrates, HPM and Health One add to our customers on a daily basis. As a business, we take pride in the ongoing development of our systems to ensure that they continue to provide the strongest digital foundation for our users while at the same time facilitating interoperability between GP and HSE systems.

Since the last accreditation round in 2018 our systems have evolved and been augmented to assist GPs with key HSE initiatives such as Chronic Disease Management (CDM), the Individual Health Identifier (IHI), Covid Vaccines, e-referrals, e-prescriptions and much more. We are very excited about what the future holds and are focussed on continuing to add value-adding functionality to our systems for both users and healthcare industry stakeholders alike.”

Healthcare technology company, Clanwilliam Health, today committed to playing its part in the digital transformation of Ireland’s health services with the appointment of Eileen Byrne, Clanwilliam Health Managing Director, to the Ireland Digital Health Leadership Steering Group.

Comprised of leading digital health entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, clinicians, patients, academics and others, the charter of the Steering Group is to agree, align and accelerate Ireland’s Digital Health Strategy and Action Plan – Stay Left, Shift Left – 10X.

Byrne was appointed to the Steering Group earlier this year after which the group held their first meeting to review and approve the 10 key principles underpinning the Ireland Digital Health Transformation Strategy.

An Irish healthcare technology company operating under leading healthcare technology and services firm Clanwilliam, Clanwilliam Health has long enabled the digitalisation of Ireland’s health services in both primary and secondary care settings, as well as supporting the much-needed acceleration of this digitalisation over the past two years.

With the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, Clanwilliam Health’s biggest challenge as a software provider was ensuring that its users had effective digital tools to make their day-to-day activities as seamless and agile as possible.

From Covid 19 e-referrals, which enabled GPs to quickly and easily send a notification to refer a suspected Covid patient for a test, through to e-prescriptions and video consultations, Clanwilliam Health prioritised and rolled out new digital functionalities to enable GPs and their patients to better navigate the challenges of Covid-19.

Commenting on her appointment, Eileen Byrne, MD of Clanwilliam Health, said: “It is an honour for me to be appointed to the Ireland Digital Health Leadership Steering Group alongside the other members of this steering group. The last two years have really shown us how important digital technologies are to our health services and why we need to harness these technologies to make those same services more agile, flexible and responsive, for the benefit of both healthcare professionals and their patients.

“I am looking forward to working with Professor Martin Curley, Director of Digital Transformation for the HSE, and the rest of the steering group members, to further support the digital transformation of healthcare in Ireland and to Clanwilliam Health playing a central role in this transformation.”

Also commenting on the appointment, Professor Martin Curley, Director of Digital Transformation for the HSE, said: “I am delighted to have Eileen join the Digital Health Leadership Steering Group and for Clanwilliam Health to play a leading role in advising on and supporting the digital transformation of health services across Ireland.

“At the HSE, we’ve been leveraging the use of innovative technologies to enable the digital transformation of our health service since the implementation of Sláintecare and our Stay Left, Shift Left – 10X strategy in 2018. At the core of this strategy is the concept that digital technology provides an opportunity to provide 10X innovations or improvements, doing healthcare 10X better, faster, cheaper and increased capacity.

“From the support of our Chronic Disease Management Programme to e-referrals, e-prescriptions, video consultations and electronic patient records, Clanwilliam Health has been an invaluable partner for the HSE as we’ve looked to implement this strategy and utilise the power of digital applications, data and technology to improve the efficiency of care across the country.

“Now, with Eileen’s appointment to the Digital Health Leadership Steering Group, I am very much looking forward to building on our existing relationship to further advance the digital maturity of healthcare in Ireland.”

Both Eileen Byrne and Professor Martin Curley will take part in today’s inaugural National Digital Health Conference taking place at the National Digital Health Innovation Lab in the Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore. This will also be broadcast as a live video event.

The conference comprises leading digital health entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, clinicians, patients, academics and others to agree, align and accelerate Ireland’s Digital health Strategy and Action plan – Stay Left, Shift Left – 10X. Other confirmed speakers included Myles Murray, CEO PMD Solutions Ltd, Maeve McGrath, Digital Health Lead, Roche, Mohammad Al-Ubaydli CEO, PKB and Dr John Sheehan, Clinical Director, Hermitage Clinic.

While the HSE work through the impact of the recent ransomware attack on its IT systems we want to assure all customers and users that no Clanwilliam Health system has been affected by this attack. We have undertaken a thorough investigation of our system infrastructure and where necessary we have restricted access to all HSE systems while they work through their recovery and restoration processes.

In addition to these steps, we have also conducted risk assessments for all of our systems and will continue to closely monitor the situation, assisting both the HSE and all of our customers however best we can.

We will continue to notify customers directly, through email, as soon as we receive updates from the HSE that their systems are back online and safe to use.

We work with a range of stakeholders across the Healthcare industry. Given the unprecedented COVID-19 driven changes we reached out to all of our contacts to see what information they would like to share with Irish GPs.

Please click the link below for our webpage which includes the latest updates from Affidea, Alliance Medical, the Bons Secours Group, the Hermitage Clinic, the Sports Surgery Clinic, St. Patricks Mental Health Services, St. Vincents and The Waterstone Clinic.

Click here for the latest information and please feel free to share it with anyone who might find it useful.

On Friday 3^nd April historic new legislation was signed into Irish law by Minister for Health Simon Harris. The legislation removed the requirement for a physical or hard copy of a prescription to be presented in pharmacies in order to collect prescriptions that are sent via the HSE’s secure Healthmail service.

GPs can now create a prescription in their GP software system as normal and send this directly to a pharmacy via Healthmail. The pharmacy can then dispense the prescription to the patient as normal and without requiring the patient to present a signed hard copy of the prescription. All prescriptions will be stored in the HSE’s Healthmail servers to ensure a digital record is maintained.

This represents a significant change both to Irish law and to how GPs can send patient prescriptions to pharmacies throughout the country. Clanwilliam Health has supported Healthmail since its launch in 2014 and we have developed numerous Healthmail integrations into our GP software systems. Now that the legislation is in place to enable this e-prescribing, we are pro-actively working with the HSE, eHealth Ireland, our GP technology user groups and other stakeholders to ensure the Healthmail e-prescription service is enhanced in all of our GP technology systems.

Eileen Byrne, Clanwilliam Health Managing Director said: “All of our GP technology systems integrate with Healthmail today, and we look forward to continuing to work with eHealth Ireland, the HSE and our GP user groups to develop and improve these integrations. I also have no doubt that our GP users will be delighted to finally get rid of their archaic dot matrix printers from their surgeries.”

Clanwilliam Health continues to deliver functionality designed to help our users in GP practices, care homes, consultant clinics, pharmacies and hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Product additions such as video consultations, electronic referrals for COVID-19 testing, Healthmail integrations and eScript have been made widely available for users during this crisis and our development teams continue to work on delivering new functionality designed to help all of users.

Plans include expansion of eScript, an electronic prescription notification service and an accelerated rollout of video consultation system for consultants and GPs

Friday 20^th March 2020 – Healthcare technology company, Clanwilliam Health, today announced the national expansion of its electronic prescription notification service, eScript, in an effort to help Irish GPs and pharmacies as they seek to deal with the impact of COVID-19 here in Ireland. The company also announced plans to accelerate the roll-out of its video consultation service for private consultants and GPs to allow them to consult with and triage patients without bringing them into their clinic. In recognition of the current healthcare crisis, these services will be made available for free to GPs, Consultants and pharmacies throughout the coming months.

The eScript service has undergone extensive testing by Clanwilliam Health through a network of 705 GPs and 445 pharmacies who now use the service day-to-day. The eScript service safely sends a secure notification of the prescription details directly from the GP’s computer to the patient’s chosen pharmacy allowing that pharmacy to start preparing the prescription before the patient gets there. An automatic text message can also be sent to the patient once the prescription is ready for collection. With the need for social distancing and many people nervous about going to shops and pharmacies, this solution can help people get their prescription fulfilled without the need to handle the script or to stand around waiting in a pharmacy environment.

In a further effort to support patient care, Clanwilliam Health is also making the move to accelerate the availability of video consultations for consultants and GPs in Ireland. This new feature within the Company’s healthcare focused software systems will enable consultants and GPs to conduct remote video consultations with their patients through their software system. This means that all video consultations are securely conducted within the software which already maintains a digital record of the entire patient medical history including previous consultations, prescription details, treatment records, and allergy information.

This new functionality was released to 300 medical consultants this week. Plans to accelerate the rollout have been put in place so that the service is available to all consultants and GPs during the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate the best social distancing practices for all patients, particularly those in high risk categories. The next phase will make the service available to over 50% of GPs in Ireland in the weeks ahead, in turn serving over half of the patient population in the country. Clanwilliam Health expects the service to be available in all its products within a matter of months.

“The impact of COVID-19 is widespread across the country and we know that during this time our healthcare professionals are under enormous pressure. While the focus is on flattening the curve and stopping the spread of the virus, there are still people who need contact with their medical professionals to treat other minor illnesses and in other cases support them with existing conditions. Through the range of services we’re announcing today we want to help the healthcare sector at this time, and particularly GPs and pharmacists, to help them meet their patients’ needs while still practicing the advice of social distancing.”

– Eileen Byrne, Managing Director of Clanwilliam Health

For further information please visit www.escript.ie and www.clanwilliamhealth.com.

The RxWeb team attended the UK Pharmacy Show in the NEC Birmingham, held on Sunday 8th and Monday 9th October.

The exhibition is always a fantastic opportunity to meet pharmacists from across the UK, both new and existing customers, whilst demoing RxWeb in action and sharing any new system updates and developments.

Many pharmacists expressed their frustrations and concerns with the costs and contractual restraints they’ve faced in recent years and the impact these have had on their business. RxWeb users enjoy complete control and scope to manage their pharmacy to its full potential and the ability to scale economically as their business expands; RxWeb prides itself in supporting UK pharmacies in this pursuit and we look forward to continuing to do so in the coming year.

The Pharmacy Show comes near the end of what has been a record year for RxWeb and establishing it as the UK’s fastest growing PMR.

For more information on RxWeb, visit www.rxweb.co.uk.

Clanwilliam Health are proud to support the CarePlus Frontline Charity Cycle, which sees 70 pharmacists from across Ireland cycle from Dublin to Galway, via Athlone.

The journey, totaling more than 230km, is in aid of charities the Pharmacy Benevolent Fund, LARCC and Family Carers. The team departed from Phoenix Park, Dublin on Friday July 21st and will finish their journey in Galway on Saturday 22nd.

The CarePlus Frontline Cycle is organised by Mullingar-based pharmacists Eamonn Brady, John Keane and Robert Keane.

Donations to the cause can be made online here.

Alliance Medical, Europe’s leading diagnostic imaging specialists, and Clanwilliam Group, the leading healthcare, technology and services company have launched private online referrals for GPs throughout Ireland.

Available to Socrates GP users, the service will speed up access for people who are waiting for diagnostic scans by enabling GPs to send referrals immediately and securely online for their patients.

The secure online radiology referrals can be made by GPs using the online referral platform entitled Zeus. It is available directly to GPs for the referral of patients for diagnostic scans such as MRI, to the Mater Private Hospital and CUH in Cork along with sites elsewhere, in Kerry, Dublin, Galway, Kildare and Limerick.

Commenting, Ellen Leacy, Quality Manager at Alliance Medical Ireland said: “We believe that access to medical imaging should be prompt and easy for people but unfortunately that is not always the case. Our partnership with Zeus means that doctors can refer their patients directly for scans, such as MRI, immediately. This reduces the administrative burden within these centres and results in a faster service and ultimately a more timely diagnosis for patients.”

Clanwilliam Group is Ireland’s leading supplier of practice management software to GP Practices and now enables Socrates GPs to refer their patients into hospitals and other healthcare providers securely online. The partnership with Alliance Medical will enable referrals for radiology departments operated by Alliance Medical to be made quickly online.

Emmet Gilhooley, Enterprise Account Manager at Clanwilliam Group, said: “Our Zeus platform is one of the fastest growing products we have in the Clanwilliam portfolio. The addition of the Alliance Medical sites will not only expand the scope of the Zeus network across Ireland but will also enhance the referral process for Socrates users.”

To find out more about Alliance Medical or Zeus, please visit www.alliancemedical.ie & www.zeusreferrals.com.

Furthermore, to see a full list of consultants currently ‘live’ on Zeus, please click here.

Clanwilliam Health today joined forces with the HSE’s eHealth Ireland programme in launching a war on dot matrix printers. Ireland’s GPs currently rely on dot matrix printers – inefficient 30-year-old technology – for General Medical Services Scheme (GMS) prescriptions. Removing dot matrix printers from GP surgeries is an important component in bringing ePrescribing to community pharmacies across Ireland. eHealth Ireland has articulated a vision whereby the paper prescription given to the patient by the GP could be validated against an electronic copy within the pharmacy using a barcode or prescription ID.

eHealth Ireland is working with Clanwilliam Health and other providers in the healthcare IT market to introduce a new single page GMS script format which can be printed using a modern laser printer. Richard Corbridge, CIO, HSE and CEO of eHealth Ireland said: “We are delighted that Clanwilliam is joining us in launching a war on dot matrix printers. Today the vast majority of GP surgeries in Ireland have two or more printers for prescriptions – a laser printer for private prescriptions and dot matrix printers for GMS prescriptions. Aside from being large and noisy, dot matrix printers are costly to maintain and verging on obsolete making it difficult for them to be supported.

“The vision of eHealth Ireland goes beyond simply removing the dot matrix printers. ePrescribing is something which has been deliveredin many countries around the world and we believe that the clinicnans and patients of Ireland stand to benefit from its implementation. A paper prescription is a legal requirement in this country, the solution we are working towards allows for the patient to receive a printed script which includes a barcode. Upon arriving at the community pharmacy of their choice, this code will be scanned and the ePrescription will be retrieved from a secure virtual ‘health vault.’ We envision that this system will begin a phased deployment nationally and has a target to be completed by the end of 2017.We look forward to working with Clanwilliam and other technology providers to make it a reality.”

Eileen Byrne, Managing Director, Clanwilliam Health said: “Clanwilliam is delighted to be allied with eHealth Ireland in supporting their war on dot matrix printers in the primary care settings and to be working together to innovate towards ePrescribing. There is a recognition among Ireland’s GP and pharmacy communities that the current old dot matrix printer technology is incredibly outdated. Patients and health professionals stand to benefit from a modernised system, where the paper prescription can be validated against an electronic record pulled down at the point of dispensing.”

This initiative is one of several now being designed as a collaboration between eHealth Ireland and Clanwilliam Health, in 2017 the delivery of technology to GP Practices that can support the GPs part in the delivery of integrated care is a priority for the eHealth Ireland programme, these initiatives include the availability of the Individual Health Identifier, eDischarge notes,and the opportunity for GPs to make use of the Health Cloud put in place by eHealth Ireland.

Following our partnership with the Cambrian Alliance Group last year, we are pleased to announce that RxWeb will be presenting at the upcoming Cambrian Member Programme events across the UK in the coming months.

The Cambrian Roadshow has always been a great opportunity for our RxWeb team to meet members of the independant pharmacy community and engage in conversation on matters of interest to those within the industry.

We are particularly pleased to have the opportunity to now present RxWeb on a larger scale and illustrate the unique features of our web-based platform. Further, Cambrian members will welcome the feature of the Cambrian Alliance’s price comparison stock-ordering tool, e-CASS2, which is fully integrated within the RxWeb platform, a further cost-saving mechanism developed for the benefit of independant pharmacies.

Are you attending one of the below events? Get in contact with our RxWeb team now. To learn more about RxWeb’s partnership with the Cambrian Alliance Group, click here.

www.rxweb.co.uk

The members of the Clanwilliam Pharmacist Awards Committee are delighted to present to the Pharmacy Benevolent Fund the total sum of €90,156.50. This is the total sum of proceeds raised from the Awards ceremony in November and is a record amount for the Awards’ ten year history.

Eileen Byrne, Managing Director of Clanwilliam Health commented on the significance of the donation: “Clanwilliam Health are delighted to head and support such an initiative that not only recognises and awards excellence in the field of pharmacy but that also helps in providing financial aid to individuals in the Irish pharmacist community. The 2016 Awards were our biggest yet and proved to be a fantastic evening of celebration; we hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did”.

The Pharmacy Benevolent Fund supports members of the pharmacist community in need of assistance. In the past, the Benevolent Fund has provided support to a variety of recipients in need, from those unable to work following an illness or unexpected death of a family member to those requiring financial aid after retirement. The Benevolent Fund also extends its support beyond the pharmacy community and includes cases from members and their families across the Healthcare Industry as a whole

Ultan Molloy, Chairperson of the Awards Committee thanked all those that made this donation possible: “On behalf of the Committee, we would like to sincerely thank all those that supported the 2016 Awards, especially our sponsors, the attendees on the night and the Awards committee that worked tirelessly behind the scenes. This is a significant sum and a great achievement that will make a monumental difference to the lives of less fortunate colleagues and those associated with pharmacy.”

The Committee are pleased to announce the date for this years’ Awards has been confirmed as Saturday 18th November. Further details will be announced on www.pharmacistawards.com in the coming months.

WATCH: 2016 Clanwilliam Pharmacist Awards Highlights