Lyniate selected to connect Epic EPR across Northern Ireland

Lyniate has been selected by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland to provide data integration technologies for its encompass programme—a national digital transformation initiative designed to improve patient outcomes by better supporting health and care professionals.

encompass, which includes the rollout of Epic to supply integrated electronic health records across Health and Social Care Northern Ireland (HSCNI), aims to create a single digital record for every citizen, with the goal of modernising health and social care in the country.

The Department of Health selected Lyniate Rhapsody to integrate multiple health and social care systems containing the electronic records of thousands of patients and service users across Northern Ireland. It will go live next year as part of the Epic rollout.

The encompass programme will give patients and service users the ability to view and update their own health information. It will also make it easier for health and social care staff to view important information about their patients and service users across every episode of care.

Having Rhapsody as part of our IT infrastructure will help Northern Ireland on our path to becoming the first UK country with a single, connected electronic patient record

Lyniate offers flexible, healthcare-focused data integration solutions and support services and Lyniate Rhapsody, which is used in 79 NHS trusts, provides seamless integration with disparate systems across healthcare organisations, such as the electronic patient record, laboratory information system, and diagnostic imaging.

“Although Rhapsody works in the background, it ultimately helps improve frontline services for clinicians and patients,” said Dan West, Department of Health chief digital information officer.

“While continued efforts have seen staffing numbers across the HSC increase, demand for services continues to outpace that expansion.

“Interoperability across our information and systems, along with the rollout of the new clinical platform, unlocks the potential that exists for digital to play an important role in closing the capacity gap.

“Having Rhapsody as part of our IT infrastructure will help Northern Ireland on our path to becoming the first UK country with a single, connected electronic patient record.

Interoperability across our information and systems, along with the rollout of the new clinical platform, unlocks the potential that exists for digital to play an important role in closing the capacity gap

“The solution will also help futureproof our IT environment so we can be more cost and time effective for care professionals and service users, enabling us to focus on delivering the safest and highest quality of care to the people of Northern Ireland.”

Erkan Akyuz, chief executive officer at Lyniate, added “We are 100% dedicated to solving healthcare problems and are honoured that HSCNI chose Rhapsody to improve the accessibility of, and trust in, health data as the country accelerates digital healthcare transformation.

“With Rhapsody, HSCNI can ensure the right data is in the hands of the right people at the right time.”