Helen Witney
Health Information Consultant
Contents
Areas of Expertise
Eight years in information management in an NHS community trust, followed by over two years working as an independent consultant, have given me a good understanding of NHS information management issues and, more importantly, of how the collection of data affects clinical staff in their day-to-day work. More so than in the acute sector, clinicians working in community and primary care settings collect their own administrative and clinical data. A lot can be done to turn this effort to ‘feed the beast’ into ‘making the beast work for you’!
Witney Vaal Consulting can offer services in the following areas:
Managing Data Quality
I can help you achieve accuracy, consistency, completeness
and timeliness of data collection by applying these principles:
Ensure that those collecting data use
it to support their day-to-day work
Enable sharing of need-to-know
information
Enable efficient communication
Add value through access to knowledge
bases, data analysis tools, decision support tools
Monitor quality and provide ongoing
feedback, training and support.
Information, not data
I can help you mine information from your data to manage
your service and measure its effectiveness, using standard Microsoft® tools for
information analysis.
Information Systems: Strategy and Specifications
Considering new systems or expanding existing ones? I can help with feasibility studies,
business cases, user/operational requirements.
Information Systems: Realising System Potential
Get the most out of your existing systems to meet evolving needs: I can help find creative ways of using existing functionality to reap maximum benefit.
Information Systems: Custom Applications
Know what you want, but don't know how to do it? Let me help you by designing your application using Microsoft® Office functionality (Access, Excel, Word), implementing the solution and providing user training. I'm also an experienced Paradox for DOS programmer.
Information Systems: Developing Human Potential
Systems exist to serve users, not the other way around! Equip users with the tools and skills they
need to get the best from their information system: I can provide application
support for Microsoft® Office (Word, Excel, Access) and train users to support
themselves.
Consultancy Projects
Strategy
Feasibility study/options appraisal for information
systems to support community nurses in East Berkshire; production of business
case for the recommended solution which was successful in attracting regional
funding.
Options appraisal for GP referrals monitoring
for Portsmouth and SE Hants PCGs.
Summative evaluation of a pilot
implementation of the EMIS Community Care module in eight East Berkshire GP
practices for district nurses and health visitors.
Custom applications
Designed and implemented an Access database
to collate and process community data extracted from EMIS Community Care
module, as part of a larger data warehouse.
As an associate consultant of Stalis Limited,
for a private hospital client, designed a database solution that allows import
of data from a hospital system (using Stalis' own product) and subsequent
manual entry of additional data items for clinical audit. Included design of reporting module with
output to Microsoft Excel, implementation and user training.
Designed and implemented an Access database
to support activity reporting for East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust,
including automated queries and report outputs, and provide ongoing user
training as required. The database
receives data imported from a variety of feeder systems.
Realising system potential
Stepped in as interim PRIMIS facilitator for
East Berkshire PCTs during summer of 2002 whilst permanent post holder was
being recruited. Carried out baseline
assessments and MIQUEST data extracts for first wave of participating GP
practices.
For East Berkshire Community Health NHS
Trust, developed a way of using the Psion palmtops already used by district
nurses to collect data for the West Lindsey caseload weighting tool. Adapted the Excel reporting software
provided by the Audit Commission to meet local needs, provided training and
documentation to information staff for the production of the reports, and
produced training packs for district nurse training in the field.
User training
Devised operational procedures, compiled a
user guide and provided training to new staff for EMIS Community Care Module,
both on PC and PDA.
Paradox training for new users at East
Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust.
Other training provided as part of a 'package' of application design,
implementation and training.
Contact Information
E-mail helen@witney-vaal.co.uk
Telephone (+44) 01628 621370
Fax (+44) 0870 169 7146
Address 16 Byland Drive Look at a map
Maidenhead
Berks SL6 2HF
United Kingdom
Biographical Information
Born and educated in the Netherlands, Helen arrived in the
UK in 1984 with a ‘doctoraal’ degree (M.A. equivalent) in English Language and
Literature from Leiden University.
Unable to enter the teaching profession in Holland due to a surplus of candidates
and high levels of unemployment, she went to live and work in this country, to
soak up the language and culture and improve her chances in the Dutch job
market in the longer term.
A short stint in the conference department at the British
Computer Society provided her introduction to setting up a database, using one
of the first generations of personal computer on an office LAN. She moved on to IT consultancy firm Eosys
Limited, then based in Farnham Common, Bucks.
From providing secretarial and project support initially, she graduated
to consultancy, mainly to public sector clients, in the areas of office
automation and application design. She
remained there for seven years, during which time she married and settled in
the UK permanently.
In 1992, after a maternity break, she moved to East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust and held a series of posts in Information Management and Technology with responsibility for corporate activity data flows, managing the associated information systems and routine information reporting, as well as data administration and Data Protection. Latterly, she project managed the implementation of range of solutions for activity data collection in the community, with a budget of £500k.
In May 2000, she set up Witney Vaal Consulting, offering
informatics consultancy to the Health Sector.
Alongside her consultancy work, she is studying part-time for an MSc in
Health Informatics at City University, London.
She lives in Maidenhead with her husband, two young children
and dog George.
Personal Interests
NHS
Although my interest is mostly professional, I have to mention these great websites for keeping up to date with developments:
Health Care & The National Health Service (NHS)
NHS Information Authority - Portal Site
Singing
In
my spare time, I enjoy singing at musical soirees (with husband Roger on
keyboard), but I also enjoy listening to singers and vocaI groups such as Cleo Laine, Barbra Streisand, Audra McDonald, Mark Murphy, Manhattan Transfer and New York Voices.
Stephen Sondheim
My first introduction to the work of SS was ‘Sweeney Todd’, which totally bowled me over and spurred me on to discover his other works, an interest my husband and I now share. Check out the following websites for more on the great man:
Theatre
I don’t get to see anywhere near as many theatrical productions as I would like, but try to keep up to date with what’s on. These websites have lots of information on what goes on in London and elsewhere:
Albemarle of London's
West End Theatre Guide
Jazz
I sought out radio programmes playing jazz, long before I knew what it was: I just liked the music – totally ‘uncool’ for a teenager who was supposed to be interested in the charts. It wasn’t until I attended some of Dame Cleo Laine and John Dankworth’s summer schools in the early 1980s that I experienced jazz played live and became hooked. Have a look at their ‘Stables’ website, which showcases the new auditorium built to replace the old one in the grounds of their rectory home in Wavendon, near Milton Keynes: The Stables Home Page (not just for jazz!).
Or, if you are more local to the East Berkshire area, you may be interested in this:
Modern Jazz at
Jagz, Sunday Lunch
Current affairs
My browser home page is set to BBC News | FRONT PAGE , which can also act as a portal to
other BBC websites. And I subscribe to
a little magazine, entitled The Week, which neatly summarises the news, national and
international, of the last week. View World's newspapers on
Internet for links to electronic editions of newspapers around the world,
although for United Kingdom, look under England (!).
Last revised: 13 November 2002