The Clinical Information Access Program (CIAP) provides information and resources
to support evidence-based practice at the point of care. This resource is available to all nurses, midwives, doctors, allied
health, community health, ancillary and library staff working in the NSW public health system, including students
on rotation. CIAP can be accessed from work or from home.
The goal of CIAP is to improve access to decision support, support evidence-based health care, reduce adverse
events, improve clinical knowledge, and improve communications between clinician groups.
Background
In 1996, the Clinical Systems Reference Group (CSRG) defined the information requirements for clinicians at the
point of care. This included order management, results reporting and clinical care management. Also identified
was the need for decision support information, online policies, procedures and protocols, and electronic mail.
To meet the latter information requirements of clinicians, the NSW Health Department’s Clinical Systems
Steering Committee recommended that funding be provided to initiate a website of clinical information to be called
the Clinical Information Access Program (CIAP).
Governance
The CIAP Management Committee was convened in 1997 to identify, prioritise and evaluate
the information requirements for web-based information to support evidence-based clinical practice, education and
research by NSW clinicians. The Chair is Dr Roger Traill, Co-Director, Dept of Anaesthetics, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
Provides clinicians with information to support patient care processes and enhance clinical decision making.
Enables clinicians to consult with clinical colleagues on-line and share ideas and experiences.
Improves accuracy and appropriateness of clinical decisions by improved access to decision support information.
Promotes best practice as patient care methodologies such as clinical practice guidelines and clinical pathways
can be shared statewide.
Lessens patient morbidity by reducing inappropriate diagnostic testing using best practice standards.
Improves clinician-clinician and clinician-patient communication and collaboration.
Enables information to be accessed 24 hours a day corresponding with clinical practice, which is a 24-hour
coverage.
Administrative
Saves time as it puts the information in a single place - a computer instead of multiple paper sources.
Improves clinician productivity as more rapid access to relevant information saves time and provides
clinically correct information for better decision making.
Enables information to be updated in one location which then delivers timely and correct information
to the user reducing the likelihood of redundant information being utilised.
Enables information to be edited easily and in one location which eliminates printing and distribution
of updated pages.
Saves paper, shelf space and storage as a number of manuals can be eliminated/reduced.
Saves on expenditure as licence costs can be shared statewide.
Research/Education
Supports research by enabling access to relevant databases, e.g. Medline.
Provides access to information sources for education for example, Paediatric Handbook,
clinical practice guidelines, clinical pathways.
Equity Issues
Provides clinical information access for clinicians in rural
and remote areas.
Provides equal access for all clinicians regardless of their
physical location.
Provides access to information about clinical information and
support services.
Provides the potential for communication tools such as e-mail,
bulletin boards, newsgroups and special interest groups.
Communications Strategy
Communication of information to health professionals around the State is a critical success factor in
setting up a project like the CIAP.
NSW Health adopted the following strategies to communicate and market CIAP:
Established a CIAP Management Committee to oversee developments and
address technological and organisational issues
Conducted a pre-implementation review to ascertain clinicians information
requirements for the CIAP web site - this was also a marketing tool.
Created a Clinical Representative in each Area Health Service as the
liaison between Area Management, NSW Department of Health and clinicians.
Responsibilities of the role include:
marketing, communications, establishing and/or co-ordinating education
and training sessions
providing feedback to the CIAP Committee
distributing and co-ordinating user surveys
Conducted roadshows around the State to market the CIAP
Established a stand at various conferences to demonstrate the CIAP
Developed flyers, posters and other marketing materials and distributed
by post and on the website
Sent letters to all professional associations to inform of the CIAP
Presented papers at conferences
Published articles in journals and newsletters
Established a contacts page on the CIAP website that displays the
CIAP representatives and email links to their Area Health Service,
a map of the Area and links to the Areas' Intranet/Internet sites.
Established listservers and encouraged clinicians to subscribe - this
is an effective mechanism for communicating with large groups of people.
Encouraged Areas to establish their own clinical committees to disseminate
information and communicate with other groups
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