First QMAS system fully approved in NPfIT pilot

The National Programme for IT have rubber-stamped the first clinical software system for use with the new Quality Management and Analysis System (QMAS) being piloted this summer.

HealthyGP, from Healthy Software, achieved official NPfIT certification for supplying GMS Contract Submissions prior to the formal introduction of the system in April 2005. EMIS is also piloting software, entitled EMIS QMAS, and is expecting full certification for all versions of its software this week.

Rob England, MD of Healthy Software, welcomed the news: "We are delighted to have become the first IT software supplier to receive official certification from the NPfIT for GMS Contract Submission and have already registered the system in order to start supplying real-time information from some of our practices."

All software being tested is designed to extract, collate and upload data from PCTs and practices to QMAS over NHSNet on a monthly or ad-hoc basis. Payment is then calculated under NHSIA "Exeter" rules and returned. Extra non-clinical data, such as patient experience, is uploaded over a manual interface over the web. Practices using a system without GMS Certified status will need to upload all their data manually.

Software testing is being undertaken in a different way than the "sandpit" in which the LSPs were required to participate. Live pilots are taking place in selected PCTs that already use each company's software products, and over a period of three days each package is tested for extraction and communication functionality to prove that it "operates within expected parameters".

Healthysoft's system is currently being piloted in four PCTs: South Stoke, Bolton, South Leeds and Wolverhampton. EMIS is piloting EMIS QMAS over 12 sites nationwide. Margaret Walsh, practice manager for the Cornerstone Surgery in Bolton, said: "We are pleased to have had the new QMAS installed as part of the pilot scheme and having access to this information on both a monthly and ad-hoc basis will be of enormous benefit to our practice."

Although both EMIS and Healthysoft are being piloted using Read Codes, which will become obsolete at the end of 2005, no re-accreditation process for the replacement SNOMED CT has been announced. A spokesperson for Healthysoft told E-Health Insider that they are not anticipating any problems with the transfer.