NICE purchases IAM services for over 1.5m NHS users

Two year contract for services to be delivered through OpenAthens

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has signed a two-year Identity & Access Management (IAM) services contract enabling NHS users to access all centrally procured online information, including e-journals, articles, e-books and bibliographic databases.

The contract will be delivered through the OpenAthens platform, which allows users to access online resources through one portal, using one username and password. This allows administrators to see which publications and documents are being accessed and permits them to manage subscriptions cost-effectively.

The service will be provided by Eduserv, a not-for-profit IT services supplier which has been delivering OpenAthens to NHS trusts in the UK since 2003.

"Today's announcement will bring many benefits to more than 700 NHS affiliated organisations in England", said Alexia Tonnel, Director of Evidence Resources at NICE.

"By delivering IAM services to hospitals across England, the service allows OpenAthens users to look for the information they need more efficiently, whether using the service for professional development, on ward rounds, or in accident & emergency departments."

The contract replaces a previous one, originally between Eduserv and NHS Connecting for Health, which ran for a total of five years. NICE has had responsibility for managing the Access and Identity Management Service for NHS England since 2009.

According to Dan Almour, Eduserv's Business Director, the new agreement is similar to the previous one, but "OpenAthens is undergoing a significant enhancement process. We're working on that alongside NICE and the OpenAthens Federation."

He added, "A key aspect of this contract is that the NHS requires access onsite at the hospital as well as at home, while travelling or at any remote location.

"This will make accessing information and data quicker and easier for end users as well as helping the different NHS Health Authorities in England to make better use of their budget by collating usage reports which are then broken down by resource and user group."