WISDOM is a system being developed by the HSE (Health Service Executive)/HRB (Health Research Board), according to the HRB “WISDOM is a web-based mental health information system which will capture information on inpatient and community care services in Ireland”. At the moment it is being tested in Donegal.
This system has been in development for some time, as far as I know internally within the HSE and HSB.
According to a HSB newsletter in December 2007 “The HRB is working in collaboration with the HSE and stakeholders to develop an information system to expand the data currently collected from in-patient and community settings. The name of this mental health information system is WISDOM (previously know as NPIRS/COMCAR)”.
OK, this is all well and good but where is the mention of Evidence Based Healthcare, Outcomes all of which are supposed to be applied across the board to all Health Services Delivery projects.
It also mentions a rather long development lifecycle “..the Board is comprised of clinical personnel, service users, carers, ICT personnel, data protection experts, consumer affairs experts, and HSE management. It will meet each month over the next two years, overseeing the proof-of-concept stage”.
Two years!! Has nothing been learned from PPARS, etc? And how can a proof of concept take two years? Is nobody following Agile processes? By their nature Public Service IT projects will have considerable refining of the system and it is almost impossible to get everything correct with one major release.
The main press release detailing the system is located here. I’m not into bashing organisations but if they talk of using best practices across the board then that is what they should do.
It really does worry me that not once does it mention Evidence/Outcomes in any of the material I have seen related to the WISDOM system. Is this just another case of focusing on process rather than outcomes?
Also where is HIQA (Health Information and Quality Authority)in all this seeing that two of their core functions are Health Technology Assessment and Health Information.
