UHS Digital is the award-winning informatics department at University Hospital Southampton.

The informatics department look after many areas of digital technology at the Trust. They develop the clinical and administration systems.

Patient records are kept in the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) which has information about patients' healthcare – from doctors' notes, to treatment history, hospital appointments and blood tests, all kept in one place.

The informatics team look after the patient administration system which is used for booking appointments and any procedures you may need, such as surgery.

The IT infrastructure including the computers and networks is also maintained by the informatics team.

The goal of the informatics department is to support patient care by working with all the clinical teams. We listen to their ideas about what they need so they can help care for patients. This puts patients at the heart of our digital systems.

UHS Digital projects

digiRounds

If you have been in the hospital as a patient, or visiting a relative, you may have seen your doctors or nurses, use mobile phones, or tablets, and laptops on wheels. The clinical staff are using mini computers to do their digiRounds (digital ward rounds) and can see the patient information they need at the bedside.

“digiRounds makes being a doctor more enjoyable, we are able to make a diagnosis, rather than spend time logging in, and we enjoy seeing patients more because if you can’t see the data it’s incredibly stressful.” Matt Cordingly, consultant critical care.

Patient benefits using digiRounds on ipads.

Every year UHSFT has approximately 130,000 overnight patients. digiRounds is delivered through a handheld mobile device and allows clinical teams to see the patient information they need when doing ward rounds. When using digiRounds during ward rounds clinical teams save 1.5 minutes per patient, which equates to over £1million of clinical time per year released for patient care. When surveyed more than 50% of consultants were reviewing more clinical information than before.

To find out more about digiRounds, visit the UHS Digital website here.

My Medical Record

My Medical Record is a digital system which stores and displays a patient’s personal and medical health patient records online. As a patient you can see your medical information using a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone which has access to the internet. Some of the information on My Medical Record comes directly from the hospital systems at the Trust. All of the patient records online on My Medical Record are shared securely.

My Medical Record allows patients to self-manage their care by adding information about their health to their patient records online.

This could include details, such as weight or blood pressure, which may be being monitored as part of the patient’s current treatment. The patient’s clinic can then review this information as part of their treatment plan. Patients can also add relevant information about their overall healthcare, such as new medications or emergency contacts to their patient records online. Patients can use My Medical Record to cancel future appointments.

My Medical Record also allows some patients to use the message system within patient records online and easily keep in touch with their care team.

Find out more about My Medical Record on the dedicated website here.