SI04 The Role of the JPAC Standing Advisory Committee on IT (SACIT)

Abstract

The role of information technology in blood services and hospitals is becoming increasingly important to support the quality of processes and the speed and integrity of information transfer. This holds true from the collection of blood from donors and samples from patients to the processing, testing, distribution and transfusion of blood and blood components. Within this rapidly changing environment the role of SACIT is to provide advice to the UK Blood Transfusion Services. It achieves this by defining standards and recommending these to the UKBTS/NIBSC Joint Professional Advisory Committee (JPAC) for implementation by individual services. To underpin this it defines strategies for how information systems can support the UK services and hospitals, builds relationships with UK and international colleagues working in the field and promotes improvements in Quality through IT. In order to do this the group consists of individuals bringing both expertise in IT and knowledge of the whole ‘transfusion chain’, across the UK, from blood services and hospitals. During 2006/07 the group will work across a range of areas including; driving forward the development of commonality in labelling and bar coding across the UK services, promoting the use of electronic messaging, building relationships with the NHS IT programmes, promoting the further implementation of ISBT 128 and reviewing new technologies.