Working Notes 2.0 http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com Ideas - wild-eyed or not - and notes about work in progress. Nothing particularly *finished*. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:06:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU en Book Publishing - rather like playing Real Tennis at Wimbledon? http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/book-publishing-rather-like-playing-real-tennis-at-wimbledon/ http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/book-publishing-rather-like-playing-real-tennis-at-wimbledon/#comments Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:06:12 +0000 peterashe http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/?p=140

Just the other day, a bulky envellope arrived on the desk. It was my complimentary copy of the book to which I’ve contributed a chapter, on the topic of talking with children and young people about the processing of their personal information.

Handling Personal Information in Social and Health Services

Well! So here it was at last!

Warm feelings and thanks to Chris Clark and Janice McGhee (the editors) for all their shepherding of the collective enterprise in general, and their support for me individually, especially as I tended to write ‘bulletins from the Front’ (their words) rather than in the calm more academic style that is generally deployed in this context. Ever so many thanks too to Marina, for passing me the original opportunity, and Tamsyn, for giving me such a good flying start with the actual writing and for a friendly eye on the draft later - a review from a peerless peer at a critical moment.

I’d already launched an earlier draft version of my text down the slipway, to fend for itself once I’d cut the restraining chains, having been aware of the general debate about what constitutes a sensible process for academic publishing in the web 2.0 era.

But what gave a certain piquancy to the pleasure of seeing the finished physical artefact was the background feeling that it’s been a bit like a sort of courtly mediaeval dance, really. Something to be wierded about rather than critical of, of course, but…

 What brought this home was the publication of the Byron Review ‘Safer Children in a Digital World’ that was commissioned, researched, written and published within the span of time it took our various chapters to coalesce from draft into ‘galley proofs’ for final checking. With any writing that ends up ‘fixed’ (aye, there’s the rub) of course other sources are bound to arrive afterwards, that you wished you could have catered for.

But it was the contrast between the overall speed of the two production processes that drove the point home.

]]> http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/book-publishing-rather-like-playing-real-tennis-at-wimbledon/feed/ peter ashe Handling Personal Information in Social and Health Services Today’s wild-eyed idea http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/todays-wild-eyed-idea/ http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/todays-wild-eyed-idea/#comments Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:28:32 +0000 peterashe http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/?p=135

Perhaps (surely?) there are very good tools and applications available for the support of distributed data collection, but something about the widgets being deployed (very useful synopsis here, many thanks Simon Dickson) in DIUS’ recent consultation on ‘Science & Society’ struck me.

As far as I can understand it, the widgets allow interested parties to select from a menu of (in this context) the topics being consulted upon. Very sensible - it’s unlikely that everyone will be interested in every consultation question, so why not enable interested lobbies to focus their attention.

The next handy thing that’s enabled is the easy embedding of a panel, presenting the selected topics as some form of poll, within the interested party’s publication medium of choice. Again as I understand it, this is rather like embedding a Youtube video, or a tag cloud, into the sidebar of your blog, for instance. The interested party’s constituency can then respond to the poll in (that distributed) context.

And then (hey presto!) that data is piped back to the original consultation database. Not quite sure how this element works, but the idea is brill.

Even in its own terms, this is simply wizard. It’s disruptive technology of the best sort, being a game-changer for how consultation can be done. Congratulations to Steph Gray and colleagues. His own summary of their approach is well-worth inward disgestion alone.

But I was thinking of a slightly different context. I’m just working up ideas for a wee review project, in a domain characterised by fierce (and to a certain extent divergent - they’re pilot projects, which should explain a certain amount) enthusiasm for a series of clinical data-sets. Nationally, there’s a fair amount of consistency, but it’s difficult to gain consensus over the items that aren’t part of this. And politically this is not the moment to attempt to be Stalinist.

So, would this distributed approach support this ‘agreement to differ’? And would it do this better than currently mainstream approaches to clinical data sets? Could some differentiation be usefully applied by making more of the social (web 2.0) potential, rather than thinking purely within the frame of data collection?

Certainly the ease of embedding the tailorable poll (or data-collection form) in a variety of contexts would surely be a handy wee niche thingy?

Must see if a dog-walk would either help develop this, or delete the train of thought…

]]> http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/todays-wild-eyed-idea/feed/ peter ashe Changing the Frame of Reference http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/changing-the-frame-of-reference/ http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/changing-the-frame-of-reference/#comments Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:00:34 +0000 peterashe http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/?p=133

a.k.a today’s wild-eyed idea. Well, not today’s, the end of last week’s, really.

Talking recently with a colleague and friend, she was unhappy about the lack of secure email between health and social care domains. I responded with the thought that a useful experiment had been sucessfully undertaken linking selected Scottish GPs with the DWP, over assessments for Incapacity(?) Benefit, using structured messaging within SCI Gateway, and secure email once the message had gone beyond NHSNet (I think). [Subsequently I found out that this successful experiment had had to be mothballed through delays in agreeing the necessary shared financial support, between partner agencies. Business as usual in joint-working then...]

But thinking about this as I was walking the dog, later, I wondered whether shared document access might have any mileage as a possible alternative to (email) messaging. I’ve used Google docs a bit so that conceptual structure (secure document - well, reasonably secure as in ‘hidden in a haystack’ - with controlled access list, for the care team) might fit quite well, I thought.

And lo & behold the next day I stumbled across a post suggesting almost precisely that, in the context of front-ending google docs with a web form. Many thanks to Liz Henry and her network for the research…and one of those ’so it’s not just me who’s a lunatic’ moments.

Of course, actually trying this out with personal data might be another matter. It would more or less certainly make our security folk have a fit of the heeby-jeebies…or do I do them an injustice?

Then I remembered that one of our data-sharing partnerships not very far away (as I look out of the window) has been actively thinking about something very similar (though probably not with the same tools) for shared Children’s Assessments. Just as sensitive, though in a different way, as Mental Welfare Reports.

Hmmmmnnn…

]]> http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/changing-the-frame-of-reference/feed/ peter ashe eHealth and the culture of the NHS IT community http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/ehealth-and-the-culture-of-the-nhs-it-community/ http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/ehealth-and-the-culture-of-the-nhs-it-community/#comments Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:30:04 +0000 peterashe http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/?p=132

A quiet (spear-carrier’s, merely, possibly) welcome for the appointment of Alasdair Bishop’s appointment as Head of Change & Benefits in the SGHD eHealth team. I hadn’t seen him for quite a while until just recently, when we met at a workshop considering the potential scope of the eHealth Improvement Programme - on the basis of what he was forcefully and effectively arguing for there, I think I may have an idea of his views on things like focus, and the setting of priorities…!

However, perhaps some interesting cultural challenges are available? I thought I’d replay an email I drafted following the event.

I began by thinking of the eHIP in terms of a ‘business opportunity’ but came to realise that this needs more nuance.  

There’s a risk as well as an opportunity (as in SWOT, somewhere): if the eHIP is really well integrated with the other health improvement and change initiatives around, e.g. the Improvement Service Team – as it should be – ICT has had a history of being rather cloth-eared about things like culture, the dynamics & demands of change tools like PDSA etc etc….then over the piece, it may drive a wedge through the existing eH community.

I perceive this being broadly comprised of three (stereotype-warning!) groups:

  •  Those who work in NHS IT as a branch of the IM&T industry (procurement, machine-running & contract management with ATOS or whoever, keeping the infrastructure going etc etc.) – quite a bloc of staff, and plenty in senior Health Board IM&T mgt;
  • Those whose home discipline. is Project/Programme Mgt – could next month be at home helping put in a retail system, say – smaller numbers;
  • Those who enjoy working in public service, who aren’t clinicians, and who are too restless or otherwise don’t fancy ‘status quo managementt’, and have found a space in IT project management & learnt about it as they go along – a reasonable number of these, mostly locally

For the Change & Benefits team, maybe some utility in a little quiet sociological analysis (a.k.a. skills audit, or something?) to underpin resource/org’l planning?

When the going gets tough, or arduous over time, then I wonder whether inhabitants of any of these three groups are likely to gravitate to their own home territory (comfort zone)…? At the scoping workshop, quite a few of us tended to default to talking about IT rather then service change, for example.

If we are going to be ruthless and focus down on just a few real priorities (e.g. single sign on) then the going will get tough – apart from anything else, there are fewer places to hide if it’s not going well. Most of us are subject to, but also indulge in, what might be called ‘chronic agenda shuffling’ (I call mine ‘occupational hobbies’ – things I can turn to when the main priorities are delayed, not going well, or when I just fancy a bit of displacement activity). Keeping all these plates spinning is a full-time and absorbing activity, and who can blame us for not making progress with all those Good Ideas listed at the beginning of the Electronic Clinical Communications Initiative, it’s all we can do to keep the plates in the air. There’s also an element of it being more congenial to grumble about something than actually fix it – you know how it is.

All this stuff is normal organisational survival tactics/behaviour. Signing up at a workshop to being radical/focused won’t make normal life go away back at base the day after.

But back to Alistair. He is the only person I know in this domain who has actually done this focusing, with it’s attendant No Place to Hide risks, with CHI. Maybe there are more lessons to learn from his personal experience. He’ll be in a good position to pass them on.

Good luck Alasdair!

]]> http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/ehealth-and-the-culture-of-the-nhs-it-community/feed/ peter ashe Car Sharing schemes locally http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/car-sharing-schemes-locally/ http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/car-sharing-schemes-locally/#comments Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:09:50 +0000 peterashe http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/?p=131

I’ve just spent a little while searching for these, in the cause of nudging a Climate Change Group at work in that direction (i.e. join in what’s there rather than start from scratch), and thought I might relay the information here:

All these schemes (see below) just involve the individual registering – as far as I can see no need to download an application & host it or anything like that. In contrast to any group starting these schemes probably have a pre-existing user population with whom we can join in & colonise. 

With any of these the important thing for any work group or similar community will be to get to critical mass. So if idividuals all go off in different directions and register on the basis that we like the colour scheme, or something else, we’re (statistically?) less likely to be able to give or receive lists…aren’t we?

Some schemes to maybe check out (simply in the order they came up in Google under ‘”Car Sharing”+scheme+Edinburgh’)

 Maybe check too: 

 Not quite the same thing but surely relevant:

 Other things spotted ‘en route’ (ho hum):

  •  A SESTRANS Press release about a new scheme, which also informs that we missed a ‘National Liftshare day’ last month (09th./06).  Also to note: NHS Lothian using this, with an incentive for drivers sponsored by KwikFit
  • BBC item on a survey of Edinburgh Business Park users (hey, isn’t that us?) which suggested that 40% drivers said they’d share - haven’t found a site for access to the scheme this mentions yet, but surely worth following up (why keep a dog & bark yourself?)

Of course there are a number of factors to mull over in the collective decision over which scheme(s) to participate in. These might include:.

  • ease of sign-up?
  • Ease of search for other parties
  • Impressions of catchment areas – where do users generally want to go to/come from?
  • Other aspects (e.g. incentives available)

Surely there are others (schemes, factors). Suggestions welcomed…

]]> http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/car-sharing-schemes-locally/feed/ peter ashe links for 2008-06-02 http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/links-for-2008-06-02/ http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/links-for-2008-06-02/#comments Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:31:12 +0000 peterashe http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/links-for-2008-06-02/
]]> http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/links-for-2008-06-02/feed/ peter ashe links for 2008-05-31 http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/links-for-2008-05-31/ http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/links-for-2008-05-31/#comments Sat, 31 May 2008 20:30:47 +0000 peterashe http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/links-for-2008-05-31/
]]> http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/links-for-2008-05-31/feed/ peter ashe links for 2008-05-30 http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/links-for-2008-05-30/ http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/links-for-2008-05-30/#comments Fri, 30 May 2008 20:31:50 +0000 peterashe http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/links-for-2008-05-30/
]]> http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/links-for-2008-05-30/feed/ peter ashe links for 2008-05-29 http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/links-for-2008-05-29/ http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/links-for-2008-05-29/#comments Thu, 29 May 2008 20:31:47 +0000 peterashe http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/links-for-2008-05-29/
]]> http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/links-for-2008-05-29/feed/ peter ashe links for 2008-05-27 http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/links-for-2008-05-27/ http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/links-for-2008-05-27/#comments Tue, 27 May 2008 20:31:35 +0000 peterashe http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/links-for-2008-05-27/
]]> http://workingnotes2.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/links-for-2008-05-27/feed/ peter ashe