By creating a bridge between applications, the portal will enable the trust to extend the life of existing systems that might otherwise need to be upgraded or replaced. It will initially be licensed for use by up to 2,500 staff across the two hospital sites and will ultimately support access to data from over 17 existing systems. The first phase of the rollout will give the trust's 300 consultants instant access to a range of patient data including test results, medical images and letters.

CSC will work with Carefx, a leading interoperability platform provider, to deploy the portal which is built on Carefx's Fusionfx platform. Both organisations worked together to deliver the PoC and will continue to work collaboratively during roll-out.

Professor Patrick Chu, consultant haematologist at the trust, said: "The portal will allow clinicians to call up patient information whenever and wherever it's required, in order to provide safe, top-quality care. The PoC was a tremendous success and showed just how much this solution can benefit patients and staff. The use of portals is the way forward to help increase efficiency, improve treatment and diagnosis. It will make the paperless clinic a reality, which is long overdue. I support the wider adoption of this technology so that healthcare professionals are free to concentrate on the care of their patients."

The trust expects major benefits from the CSC solution. The PoC, conducted in the haematology and dermatology departments, reduced clinic times by an average of 30 minutes and made significant time savings for clinicians.

Tony Bell, the trust's CEO, said: "Good IT solutions bring enormous benefits to the NHS by improving efficiency, saving time and resources, and it's a great vehicle for the transformation of services. In light of government reforms and efficiency targets, we saw the portal as a strategic decision to protect our existing investment in IT systems. It is an effective and efficient way to reduce costs and administration, while simultaneously speeding up and increasing the throughput of patients."

Following the PoC, the trust went out to tender for a portal solution. It selected CSC because it offered the greatest scalability, functionality and future-proofing.

James Norman, the trust's director of IM&T, said: "We decided to opt for a portal solution as we felt it would be easier and quicker to deploy alongside our existing systems, minimising disruption. The PoC provided the business case and I think a lot of trusts will go down a similar route. We looked at some very good systems but when it came to a final decision, CSC, working in partnership with Carefx, was ahead of the game. The news has been very well received by staff. I've had consultants banging on my door asking to be at the front of the queue for getting the portal."

In the longer term, the trust will provide limited access to the system for GPs. This will reduce delays in informing family doctors about any interventions, and support the delivery of seamless care.

Andrew Spence, CSC's UK director of healthcare strategy, said: "This contract is further proof that our portal solution is ideal for the needs of the NHS at this time. The portal is another example of how CSC is transforming healthcare with better information for better decisions; saving lives and money. It provides an urgently needed new capability that allows healthcare professionals to access and manage patient data dynamically in an instant, wherever they are. This will improve continuity of care and clinical productivity, while reducing fragmentation of clinical information giving the patient a better experience.

"Interest in our portal solution is growing quickly because it brings many of the advantages of an entirely new system but without the same expense, time or disruption," Spence continued. "It is highly flexible and caters for the specific needs of each customer. Clinicians like the portal because it is easy to use and requires very little training."

CSC has formed a strong partnership with Carefx and will continue to deliver solutions that meet the requirements of individual NHS trusts and national interoperability programmes.

Related news articles:

• CSC's Profile

About Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals Trust
The trust is among the largest hospital trusts in the north of England with an annual budget of over £400 million, and 5,600 directly contracted staff. In 2009-10 it saw 567,683 in its outpatient department, 88,000 emergency patients and 86,000 day case admissions. The trust provides general hospital services and emergency care to the local community including a full range of medical, surgical, diagnostic, rehabilitation and therapy services. These include several nationally and internationally recognised services such as ophthalmology, hepatobilliary, surgery, gastroenterology and pathology. It is one of the top 20 teaching trusts in the country.

About CSC
CSC is a global leader in providing technology-enabled solutions and services through three primary lines of business. These include Business Solutions and Services, the Managed Services Sector and the North American Public Sector. CSC's advanced capabilities include system design and integration, information technology and business process outsourcing, applications software development, Web and application hosting, mission support and management consulting. The company has been recognized as a leader in the industry, including being named by FORTUNE Magazine as one of the World's Most Admired Companies for Information Technology Services (2011). Headquartered in Falls Church, VA., CSC has approximately 93,000 employees and reported revenue of $16.2 billion for the 12 months ended December 31, 2010. For more information, visit the company's website at www.csc.com.

About Carefx
Carefx helps healthcare organisations advance the quality and safety of patient care through its Fusionfx suite of interoperable workflow solutions. Fusionfx streamlines and simplifies clinical and business workflow and connects care providers to the information they need. By managing care transitions and information gaps between diverse systems, departments and facilities, Fusionfx delivers crucial patient information with speed, efficiency and logic. Carefx supports more than 800 hospitals, health systems, regional health information organisations (RHIOs) and health information exchanges (HIEs) across North America and Europe. Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, USA. Its EMEA headquarters are in Watford.