"I am interested in the challenge of developing electronic care records in mental health, where every recent report into psychiatric disaster has pointed the finger at 'failure to communicate'."

Key projects and priority areas

Dr Joe McDonald

Joe has been working on the development of electronic patient records for use in mental health and looking at how they can be used to improve patient safety and communication.

This is linked to the work being undertaken by the NHS Care Records Service (NHS CRS) where the London Programme for IT (LPfIT) is deploying a new mental health system (sometimes referred to by the supplier name, CSE Servelec RiO) which supports staff working in mental health and their clients.

Staff in half of the mental health trusts across the capital are already using the system to manage their caseloads, access information more easily and improve the quality of care that they can provide to clients.

The continuing success of RiO in London and the freedom of choice afforded to the trusts in the South has meant Joe is now focusing on the development of clinical content for the electronic care record software, Lorenzo, in the North Midlands and East area. Anyone wishing to be involved should contact Joe directly.

For more information about the NHS CRS mental health system, please visit the LPfIT website.

Resources

• Read the paper on electronic records in NHS mental health services, published by the Informatics sub-committee of the division of clinical psychology of the British Psychological Society , 'Clinical Psychologists and Electronic Records' (M. Berger & A. Skinner, 2008), available to download from The British Psychological Society's website.

• Clinical coding instruction manual: Mental Health ICD-10 (the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems – tenth version)
• Mental Health Foundation course
• What does the patient electronic record mean for you? Papers and presentations from January’s mental health engagement event are available to download.

Related NHS CFH programmes

• NHS Care Record Service
• Choose and Book
• Personal Demographic Service
• Electronic Prescription Service
• Meet the other National Clinical Leads

Do you have a question for Joe?

E-mail: NCL@nhs.net – please put 'Mental Health' as the subject for your email query.