The Informatics Group of the NNBC has considered reports concerning various telemedicine projects in burn care from across England and Wales.  There are three such projects, two of which are network based and one national.

1) A detailed presentation from the South East network was received concerning the development of a tele-referral system using a secure website on which participating emergency departments would register and be able to send text and images for consideration by the burn care team.  This has been piloted in East Grinstead and it is hoped a roll the project out across the network in a phased fashion throughout 2012.

2) Discussions are underway in the Northern network concerning the potential using telemedicine in a variety of roles but with no specific projects having been identified.  A meeting to consider the options was held in Wakefield in early September and future discussions will be held.

3) As part of the iBID software redevelopment a follow-on project was described at its initiation in 2007 to build into the software the ability to accommodate a tele-referral system.  With finalisation the iBID software and distribution in early 2012 it is anticipated the tele-referral component would then go into full-time development.

The Informatics Group has undertaken to keep all such projects under review and report their progress to the NNBC.

Further to an invitation to present at the BBA sponsored study day on injury prevention, the need for the consistent and long term collection of data about injuries, not only burn injuries, was emphasised.  such information would inform policy makers as to the populations most at risk and provide a means of measuring the effective interventions. Similarly the need for the coordination of information about effective prevention measures and information was extensively discussed.

Given the financial difficulties being experienced by the majority of charitable institutions it was however plain that it is unlikely that a coordinating role for the BBA was feasible in the near future, although generally agreed as being the most logical way forward.

Further to an invitation from the organising committee of the Australian Royal College of Surgeons, a presentation was given by Ken Dunn to be meeting in Adelaide in which he provided an overview of the discussions underway in the UK about the funding of trauma care, with particular reference to burn services.

Additional discussions were had concerning the nature of the burn injury registries in both the UK and Australasia and the potential for collaborative data sharing and research between the two organisations.  It was agreed that such data sharing would be considered in detail once be new version of the iBID software was in use in early 2012.