Datasec - IT Security & Control

Scottish Government eHealth Demonstrator Project
The Scottish Government eHealth Demonstrator Project: eHealth Approach to its Governance Using CobiT, Scotland, UK


Initial Situation

On August 2008 the Scottish Government eHealth Programme approved the joint proposal of three Health Boards; NHS Fife, NHS Lothian and NHS Borders to fund a Demonstrator to improve eHealth Governance across the regions. The main aim was to demonstrate the important benefits and improvements from implementing IT Governance using the CobiT framework, in a venture involving the eHealth departments. 

There was desire within all three Organisations and Project Sponsors to demonstrate measurable improvement in the services provided by eHealth (IM&T) taking account of:

  1. Organisational goals
  2. eHealth Goals
  3. Risks
  4. Audit Recommendations
  5. User’s feedback
  6. IT Industry best practices
Within the word of best practices, CobiT provides a proven framework and methodology to align technology with business and its needs. With its process driven approach, it supplies a simple way to develop and deliver services aligned with eHealth goals, also leading the path to service improvement.

The approach to eHealth Governance using COBIT was unique within NHS Scotland, it has been reviewed by the Scottish Government PMO and commended by internal and external auditors.

Solution Provided

The Demonstrator project based the approach on COBIT which is a best practice framework, raising awareness of IT/eHealth Governance within the teams across the three aforementioned Boards.

The solution consisted of the following main stages:

a)    Establishing the foundations for proper eHealth Governance
b)    Training and coaching the staff
c)    Assessing the processes and setting a baseline on which to start working
d)    Conducting a value analysis to prioritize work on different processes
e)    Selecting the most relevant eHealth processes on each organization to get improved
f)    Implementing Pilot processes given the priorities highlighted

Datasec’s solution comprised Meycor CobiT Software provisioning, Training, and Consultancy Services over a seven month period to deliver the proposed goals.

The Demonstrator took advantage of NHS Fife previous experience with CobiT, which consisted in an implementation project driven by one of Datasec’s Consultants.

This project was resourced with a total of three on-site dedicated Consultants, each covering one region.  

Datasec’s tailored methodology and approach to IT Governance, which proven its suitability within NHS Fife, was then adapted and deployed to the rest of the boards. This previous experience along with Datasec’s expertise and the increase in the number of consultants, allowed moving quicker in NHS Lothian and NHS Borders in many aspects, also proving its applicability to diverse boards.

Having dedicated resources from Datasec has helped to ensure COBIT is embedded into the eHealth depatments; the foundations were set so the boards can continue working with IT/eHealth Governance supported by the knowledge transfer occurred.

Benefits

The Demonstrator project proved the usefulness of Datasec’s proposed methodology for implementing IT Governance using CobiT and a Suite of software tools, amongst three boards with different sizes, realities, structures and operational procedures.

It was demonstrated over the project that CobiT framework can help eHealth services alignment with the enterprise as well as lead improvement on crucial eHealth service areas.

As a result of the collaboration between boards and around a common framework, is that nowadays the boards are getting the benefits that encompasses a good IT Governance implementation.

Conclusion

The Demonstrator delivered the proposed goals as established in the project objectives.

External consultancy from Datasec was a key factor for delivering the expected objectives, training the people involved and guiding the project throughout all project stages.

Having an on-site Consultants is seen as an important factor especially at the very first stages of this kind of projects.

The use of Meycor CobiT tools supported and facilitated every stage of the Demonstrator.

Hopefully this successful experience will be expanded in the future to other NHS Health Boards which will benefit from the path opened by this project.

 

Summary:

Country: Scotland, UK

Contact Person: Mr. Pablo Borges

Vertical: eHealth, NHS Scotland (Public Health Services)

Customer Profile: The Scottish eHealth Programme provides co-ordination of various elements required for a successful IM&T (Information Management and Technology) Programme - technology, information, culture, clinical engagement and consideration of business needs including the patient’s interests and requirements.