"NHS Warwickshire began the redevelopment of its web presence in 2008. After conducting a public needs assessment exercise, it became clear that the local population wanted a website that fulfilled the need for high quality reliable information placed within a clear local context.
"Our aim is simple. We want to provide the best available tools and information and to do it in a simple, highly localised and as-few-a-clicks-as-possible way.
"After meeting with NHS Choices representatives, it was decided to incorporate as much of the national functionality as possible within the structure of the site. This allows us to signpost the best available, fully evidence-based health information to our users without requiring us to spend a disproportionate amount of time on producing or checking the details.
"We currently consume the Interactive patient information tool, for which we have created our own navigable graphic interface. Our users search on our site and get information on our site while the hits register both locally and on the NHS Choices website.
"We also consume the same service directory. We have however developed an advanced search interface so that the directory is present at the foot of every NHS Warwickshire web-page.
"We consume the Health stories and the multimedia video library and have begun work on how to bring NHS Choices interactive tools into the overall structure of our site.
"We have also begun to investigate the Information Prescription tool provided by NHS Choices and develop a methodology around how we could use this locally.
"Our next stage of development will be to build on our existing personal user account pilot, and develop each of the NHS Choices web services into a user-selection criteria. Individuals who register for a personal "My Healthy Warwickshire" site will be able to select their GP, their dental practice, a health interest area and a demographic profile. These details will be used to populate a personal health homepage that is highly specific to each individual user.
"We prize our close working relationship with NHS Choices very highly. It has helped us to develop reliable content quickly. It has provided us with a library of interactive tools and videos to use with no cost and no development delays. It has also enabled us to look at how we can work more closely with NHS Choices, and whether there is work that we can do at a local level to feed back to the national site. Furthermore, it has freed us to focus upon our own development efforts without fear of duplication.
"Since our full site went live on February 20 2009, we have received in excess of 106,500 individual page views."
Nigel Brook, knowledge manager, NHS Warwickshire
