Mobile libraries: the medical research services project

Microsoft has invested £40 million in the Common User Interface programme - a series of projects to help the NHS get the most out of its IT investment. One of these projects has been looking for ways to build medical research services into the software that NHS staff already use every day.

There is no shortage of information and advice for NHS staff who want to keep their skills up to date, deliver best practice or check vital details in their day to day work. Indeed, the bigger problem for clinical and administrative staff may be keeping on top of all the research, guidance and updates that are now available.

“There are many, many sources of information, but they do not integrate well into people’s working lives,” says Carl Nolan, head of the medical research services project, which is part of Microsoft’s Common User Interface programme.

“They will be in print or on websites, so that if people need them they have to stop what they are doing and go and find them. The idea of this project is to bring things together and make them more readily available.” 

The research pane

The project has worked with the National Library for Health (NLH) and the British National Formulary (BNF) to create new ways for people to access the information they hold through software that is in everyday use.
“The idea of this project is to bring information sources together and make them more readily available.”

Initially, the project focused on a feature of Microsoft Office called the research pane, and adapted it to give people access to the NLH and the BNF as they worked in Office applications, such as Word.

“At the moment, if you generate a Word document, and you type in a medical term, you will see a red squiggle [a spelling query] appear under it,” says Mr Nolan.

“Now, if you generate that same Word document and type in the same term, there will still be a red squiggle - but if you right-click on it, research pane will open up and give you a set of medical sites that you can use to find out more.”

Called to the desk-bar

More recently, the project has developed a desk-bar that can be downloaded onto a Windows desk-top (the start-screen for any computer running an operating system such as Windows XP or Vista).

This allows people to search the same information sources, but direct from the desktop, without needing to start a particular application. “We think this will be useful for looking things up, downloading and printing, or showing things to patients,” says Mr Nolan.

Over time, the project hopes to add more information sources and more points of access to them. “We are not telling people where to search, but we are directing them towards resources that are applicable to the NHS,” says Mr Nolan.

“We are also making search faster and better, by removing the need for people to remember lots and lots of URLs (website addresses) and cutting out some of the vagaries of searching the Internet with a search engine.”

The National Library for Health

The National Library for Health was founded with an ambition to be “one of the great libraries of the world.” It holds a vast collection of reviews and guidelines, databases of articles and books, patient resources and specialist libraries on everything from cancer to women’s health.
“The really impressive thing is how fast it is - and how easy it is to scan the results to quickly find what you want.”
But Sir Muir Gray, director of clinical knowledge, process and safety for NHS Connecting for Health, is acutely aware that it may not be convenient for people to visit its website whenever they need its services.

“The NLH is part of the National Knowledge Service, which aims to deliver clean, clear knowledge to people just as the water boards deliver clean, clear water to them,” he says.

“There are several parts to that: one is bringing the information together in a library, the other is finding ways to get it to people. You can use the web, you can push information to people through email or RSS feeds, or you can deliver it to people through their workspace.

“We saw an opportunity in the widespread use of Microsoft products in the NHS. Lots of people use programs like Word, and now we can use them to take our knowledge to where people are. The programs are our water carriers, as it were.”

The British National Formulary

The British National Formulary is published by the British Medical Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. It aims to provide clear, concise and accessible information about the selection and clinical use of medicines for healthcare professionals.

“Research suggests that in its various formats, the BNF is used more than 3 million times per week,” says BNF publishing director Dominic Vaughan.

“So having it on the desktop, and being able to click through to it seamlessly, should be a tremendous advantage for the NHS - even though there will still be a need for other means of access when people are away from their desks or working in some clinical situations.” 

New resources a download away

The MRS Installer and Guides are freely available from the Office section of the NHS CUI Distribution Mechanism: https://www.cui.nhs.uk

MRS helps GPs in Tower Hamlets

Dr Saul Marmot works at the XX Place surgery in Tower Hamlets, London, and at the Bromley by Bow Centre. This is a community organisation established in the 1980s to help regenerate the local area. It’s also famous, since New Labour’s experiments with ‘healthy living centres’ were heavily influenced by its model.

Dr Marmot says the staff working at the centre also have a strong interest in IT, which is why he and other GPs connected with it have been trialling the new medical research services developed by Microsoft’s Common User Interface programme.

He is particularly impressed by the desk-bar, which sits on the desk-top and gives instant access to information in resources such as the National Library for Health (NLH) and the British National Formulary (BNF).

“We had been developing something along the same lines, with websites in a toolbar,” says Dr Marmot. “But this is really good. I just type a phrase [into the search feature of the desk-bar] and it brings up lots of references.”

Dr Marmot gives a specific example. “Let’s say a patient comes in with a diagnosis and I want to know more about it - I want to know what the latest research is or what the latest guidelines for treatment are.

“I can put in a key word, and [the desk-bar] will bring up lots of references [to research, guidelines and other resources within the NLH and BNF]. The really impressive thing is how fast it is - and how easy it is to scan the results to quickly find what you want.

“I also like the fact that you can misspell a word and it will have a good guess at what you are looking for. That’s very useful if you are working quickly, or a drug name has changed recently.”

Indeed, Dr Marmot hopes the medical research services project will now be expanded to include more resources, including information for patients. “But compared with what we had a year ago, this is amazing,” he says.

Related Links

* The Common User Interface programme has its own website, with more information and lots of useful downloads: www.cui.nhs.uk
* To browse through the National Library for Health, visit its website: www.library.nhs.uk
* To find out more about the British National Formulary, take a trip to its website: http://bnf.org