in places where WiFi was present, local clinicians assumed everybody had similar levels of WiFi access

conversely, where WiFi was absent, clinicians assumed nobody had WiFi

nobody actually had a picture of WiFi access across the whole NHS

2013

John Popham - Patient WiFi

2013 results

"Which of the following best describes Staff access to WiFi at your place of NHS work?"

My organisation has a free WiFi network and I have the password 20.30%

My organisation has a free WiFi network but I do not have the password 20.18%

My place of work has installed its own free WiFi outside of NHS provision 2.63%

WiFi service that is not free (eg Commercial Provider) 3.76%

No WiFi - there are no WiFi networks at all 36.22%

EduRoam academic network 1.38%

The "12%"

12.16% responded 'Other'

A large proportion of these were along the lines of

"There is WiFi for managers and IT staff only"

:-(

knowledge resources at the point of care

anecdotally

better decision making

based on better evidence and latest guidance

better information for patients

most up-to-date information is internet based...

searchable... comparable... reviewed...

carrying a load of books around is increasingly infeasible

"Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better"

Florence Nightingale, Cassandra, 1860

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world:
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself...

Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man"

George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionaries, 1903

Why isn't he talking about mobile access to EHRs, test results, radiology?

it's a whole other can of worms

issues with interfacing with EHRs

vendor-specific complications & obstinacy

Information Governance, security, device lockdown, authentication

let's leave that for another day shall we...

Medical School iPads

Numerous medical schools (Manchester, Leicester, Dartmouth) are providing iPads to all medical students http://bit.ly/1wU0RBh

presented findings to Jonathan Kay, Clinical Informatics Director, NHS England

presented last year at Skunkworks, NHS England

2014

LimeSurvey-powered (open source self hosted survey engine)

Sept-Oct 2014 about 500 respondents

survey design had to compromise between simplicity and perfection of data

Can you access WiFi in
your place of NHS work?

2014 YES 51.24%

'YesWiFi' subgroup

I can connect to WiFi with my own device (BYOD) 61.13%

I can connect to WiFi with a work-provided device 53.04%

WiFi requires login on a web page after device connects to WiFi network 42.91%

I have access to EduRoam, the academic WiFi network 5.67%

WiFi is provided by a commercial service 22.67%

WiFi access is free 77.33%

WiFi access works in most areas of my workplace that I need it to 52.63%

'NoWiFi' subgroup

WiFi access is only for work devices and I haven't been provided with one 52.36%

WiFi isn't required - internet and clinical record access via Desktop PCs is sufficient 10.85%

There are no WiFi networks at all 28.77%

There is a good mobile data signal (ie 3G, 4G) in my place of work 11.79%

Summary

Definite improvement over last year's results

Still only 50% of clinical staff have access though

Still a lot of comments that WiFi is available but only for IT staff/Managers (and in one commment the cleaners - ?hyperbole) but not Clinical staff.

Even where WiFi is present, 30% is non-free

And only 50% reported it was everywhere it is needed

2015?

Will I need to run this survey again?

*prepares to grind axes*

Semi-arbitrary and counterproductive Web Filters?

IT hardware underpowered for modern uses?

The Survey Is Still Live, at:

bit.ly/nhswifi2014

Links & Thanks

www.opengpsoc.org

www.handihealth.org

www.nhshackday.org

Reveal.js presentation framework https://github.com/hakimel/reveal.js

Leaflet.js mapping framework https://github.com/Leaflet/Leaflet

discussion