The Amalga platform unlocks and pulls raw patient information from a wide range of existing core technology systems, such as Cerner Millennium. By taking data feeds from Cerner and other systems, Amalga is able to present the data through a single interface to authorised members of clinical teams, enabling them to rapidly access consolidated patient data.

Amalga enables hospital clinicians to take this aggregated information and create reports and dashboards to better analyse patient data that would have previously been locked in siloed systems. By bringing data together into a single interface, hospital staff are also able to provide quicker, more accurate diagnoses - with the ultimate goal of improving patient care and advice.

"We are focused on simplicity and the ease of getting all our patient information in the same place," says David Powell, head of information management and technology at Milton Keynes Hospital. "Amalga makes us much more agile and flexible. It helps us improve patient care, while also aligning ourselves with the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation framework."

"Amalga's analysis of the venous thromboembolism (VTE) form - a tool that assesses hospital patients' risk of VTE - is a perfect example of this," says Powell. VTE is thought to be responsible for the deaths of around 25,000 hospital patients in England each year. "With Amalga we can now do the analysis and compliance monitoring instantaneously - something that was next-to-impossible to do on paper. This type of speed is vital when it comes to making serious improvements to patient care," concluded Powell.

Based on initial user feedback from Milton Keynes, Amalga has already helped ease clinicians' frustration by saving them time logging on to multiple systems. Previously, doctors, laboratory staff and nurses would be required to log on numerous times a day to various systems, often for a single patient. By providing this information through a single interface, hospital staff now has more time to spend on providing direct patient care.

The Amalga system has also proved beneficial for improving reporting and operations. Previously, it could take days or weeks to produce reports that the hospital could then use to assess their position against government targets; using Amalga, generating reports has been reduced to hours. These reports can now be tailored exactly according to a Trust's specific needs at any given time - and adjusted as and when needs and reporting preferences change.

John Gobron, UK Director at Microsoft's Health Solutions Group, says, "Milton Keynes demonstrates that NHS Trusts are already collecting a wealth of data, sometimes without even knowing, which can be used to provide better quality care and safety for patients and staff by providing rapid access to information. By offering a solution that will provide real-time information, from multiple systems into a single point of access the Trust is in a stronger position to meet challenges of an ever changing healthcare landscape."

Implementation of Amalga began in January and a wide-scale rollout across the Trust is underway.

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