NHS BI specialists, 21c, leverage existing Microsoft software infrastructure to deliver an adaptable national flu response contingency plan with ‘Pandemic Manager’

London, 28 July 2009 – NHS business intelligence (BI) specialists, 21c, today announced that Trafford Primary Care Trust (PCT) has implemented Pandemic Manager, a BI solution for automating the allocation and stock management of antivirals to PCTs who manage antiviral collection centres. Trafford PCT will use Pandemic Manager to help run its own local telephone triage systems should the national flu response service become unavailable as a contingency model.

Abdul Razzaq, Director of Public Health, Trafford PCT explains, “In the event of the national flu response service suffering technical problems or being overwhelmed by the volume of inquires, we are now equipped as a local telephone flu triage unit. We needed to replace paper flows of data between the various anti-viral locations. These sites are scattered across the borough and require constant IT connection so that we can understand in real-time, who is coming to collect appropriate medication and Pandemic Manager will provide the solution to support this activity as part of our contingency emergency planning.” 

Pandemic Manager provides PCTs with a simple ‘command and control’ facility to collaborate and report between other PCTs and distribution centres. Based on standard Microsoft tools, it manages the stocks, distribution and dispensation of antivirals or vaccines, as well as patient contact and GP liaison using a simple set of electronic forms and workflow. Inexpensive and installed in just a matter of days, Pandemic Manager also includes a suite of clinical dashboards that give healthcare professionals access to critical data for accurate analysis and reporting.

Paul Henderson, Managing Director at 21C explains, “Our solutions are built on the Microsoft Business Intelligence software stack, providing a common platform that fits neatly into the NHS IT infrastructure. This BI project is not only about responding to the current pandemic; but also about mitigating the risk posed by planning for any kind of emergency, as well as improving everyday operations such for immunisations and vaccinations.”

Mr Razzaq continued, “This has massively helped to reduce development and deployment time as it doesn’t take months or years, but rather a few short days to implement 21c’s solutions. This is one of the biggest benefits of 21c – the length of time from getting the product, to deploying it.”

“21c is not only professional, but is also playing a vital part in protecting the public health. We do this for a living, but it’s good to see that industry is playing its part, assisting the NHS to be better prepared to respond to the needs and demands on the health service in the coming weeks and months. We are truly in unprecedented times but well prepared for this pandemic and 21C is a pioneering company that is working at the cutting edge” concluded Mr Razzaq.