EMIS has announced the start of an “active roll out” of its cloud-based platform EMIS-X, marking what EMIS is calling the first step on a larger journey to migrate all services and software to the cloud.
The company noted that functionality will be “added gradually” and practices can “adopt new features at a reasonable pace without feeling the need to have to retrain on a completely brand-new system from day one”.
First announced in 2018, the development of EMIS-X has seen data centres moved from EMIS Web into the cloud to enable the new platform. EMIS is taking what it calls an “evolutionary approach” to the platform, with functionality to be added gradually.
Product marketing director Richard Smith shares that initially “the combination of the companion app alongside EMIS Web will have greater functionality and greater capabilities than that of the browser”. EMIS envisages that the short to medium term will see “most people” continue to use the Web product with the support of the new app.
“However, we will continue to enhance the functionalities available through the EMIS-X browser, and that will move way beyond the core capabilities and core functionality of prescribing appointments and recording consultations,” said Richard.
The next phase of the project will focus on building the functionality that is needed to meet the requirements of the Technology Innovation Framework, with EMIS working to support users to have the choice of whether they want to log into EMIS-X and use it on a browser, or choose the side-by-side capabilities with EMIS Web.
EMIS is calling the new application “the platform upon which we will build all future solutions”.
“This is the first step on a much bigger journey,” shared Richard, “as we migrate all of our services and all of our software across all our different markets into the cloud.” He added that this will see EMIS-X “become the main platform not just for primary care but also for community, community pharmacy, and the acute, to offer a truly integrated service.”
Sherif Al-Marayati, pilot user of EMIS-X and business manager at St John’s Way Medical Centre in London, comments that he is “really happy with the new functionality”. In particular, he highlighted the usefulness of a new chat feature that allows staff to message people in or out of the building, along with the fact that the companion app opens at the same time as EMIS Web to prevent the need for multiple log-ins.
“You can quickly see things like problems and medications on EMIS X which means GPs can type notes on EMIS Web and quickly look for them on the other screen,” he said.
In related news, we recently welcomed the NHS England Blueprinting Team along with representatives from Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, for a discussion on their experiences with an EMIS migration and merger project.
