Content area
Full Text
The secure intranet service developed by the National Pharmaceutical Association in conjunction with IMS could offer pharmacies a way to join the NHSnet en masse.
The NPAnet is firewalled, so may satisfy the security requirements for NHS links, director John D'Arcy said on Sunday at the BPC's Information Technology session. It is also intended to encourage pharmacists to communicate with each other and with other health stakeholders.
However, although e-commerce is omnipresent, its success is just a perception, suggested Mr D'Arcy.
It is important and seen as the way forward for business, but there is a paradox in that no-one is making any profit out of it, he said. And while recommending that the pharmacy profession gets behind the new technologies, he warned that people should take a measured approach to e-commerce, with greater unity among the health professions to ensure patient records were linked.
Currently, various sets of information are collected about the patient - in the GP notes,...