data isn't oil, it's sand

The NHS doesn't need to move from analogue to digital. It needs simple digital tools now that address the priorities of NHS people.

The only real measure of success for Triscribe is NHS people using our charts and tables to make their lives easier and deliver better patient care.

The honest truth about Triscribe is that we don’t do anything clever. We fetch the data you need, whichever system it sits in, organise it and present it in the way that is most useful to you and your team. 

We think this is a simple and obvious way to make a difference quickly. For some reason, the world doesn’t work that way. It does my head in.

The spaghetti medusa of data

Data is critical to the whole NHS digital agenda. The alphabet soup of FDP, SDEs, and the ideas of the TBI won’t deliver the data the NHS needs. And they won’t fix any of the problems NHS people face today..

The spaghetti medusa of data is a problem across all large organisations. Trying to fix it runs into three huge issues:

• No-one wants to give access to the data. The NHS doesn’t want to give private companies patient data. Vendors want to charge the NHS for access to the data they do have. 

• At first sight, much of the data is junk. Legacy formats and structures in awkwardly shaped silos. It needs cleaning. By cleaning we mean organising and aligning so information can be analysed and compared across datasets.

• The data is not junk. Each system has been designed to gather data for a specific purpose. That means the nature of data collected and how it is used is specific to that purpose. Which makes it hard to use for a new, more interesting reason.

Trying to fix these problems consumes millions of hours of consulting time and huge IT budgets across the public and private sectors..  With very limited results. The NHS can learn from those failures, no need to repeat them.

The NHS does not need to move from analogue to digital. It is already digital. Much of the data already exists. Staff spend millions of hours each week entering that data into NHS systems. Patients, clinicians and managers need to find ways to use that data. 

Listen to the frontline

The NHS frontline is telling us what they need to make a difference now. You can read what staff think in this excellent report from the Health Foundation released in April 2024. Or see the five priorities outlined in an open letter written by the Digital health Leaders Network in January 2024. 

Most of the themes are common. This should be the agenda for the NHS digital future.

We need simple, easy to install, custom built tools and apps that can help now. Triscribe is one of those. Its built on 3 simple principles that anyone can copy:

• Link data using patient IDs (pseudonymised to maintain privacy). Align and organise data using established standards such as dm+d, SNOMED CT and ICD.

• Build everything with proven, modern low cost technology tools. Every part of our software is built with open source.

• Listen to clinicians and build what they need. Show it to them, listen to the feedback and improve it based on what you learn.

Find out more

We would love to work with you. If you would like to know more about Triscribe or just talk about data challenges, please get in touch.

Please go out and find other similar tools as well. 

This is the only way to deliver innovation and empower NHS people to make best use of the digital technologies that exist, never mind those that will be available in the future.