Testimonials
Ana Liffey - Dublin
Importantly, the Neo system is flexible and easy to use; with a good reporting function. I have found the Neo team a pleasure to work with. They are knowledgeable about the neo system, how to adapt Neo to our needs and are good at staff training. Being based in a different country, to the Neo team, did not hamper the process of rolling our neo across the Ana Liffey Drug Project.
We are at an early stage of implementing Neo and we look forward to working with the Neo team to develop the system further to our use in the Irish context.
NHS Highland
Our service has only recently begun using Neo in selected fixed site and Pharmacy needle exchanges, it's so much simpler than the old paper based system and all our staff like using it. Neo gathers much more information for us and in seconds we can generate reports that perviously would have taken day.
The training and support offered by Neo was also excellent, an essential feature for slow learners like me!
Glasgow Addiction Services
Project Summary
Glasgow Addiction Services worked closely with Harm Reduction Solutions to develop a custom-built web based data collection system for all Injecting Equipment Providers (IEP’s) in Greater Glasgow and Clyde. This system has greatly improved the speed and accuracy of the data recording and has introduced innovative patient benefits. The NEO system was introduced in April 2010 to all IEPs in GG&C, including 62 pharmacies and 8 other sites. This is the first system in Scotland to meet the national data collection requirements established by the Scottish Government. During 2010-2011, over 11,000 individual clients have been registered on the system and 65,000 transactions recorded. Uniquely, the system records information on the IEP’s contribution to patient care as it allows monitoring of health interventions and referrals to other services. This allows accurate recording and monitoring of a previously anonymous client group using identifiers and eliminates the previous multiple counting that prevented any meaningful evaluation or monitoring.
The Scottish Governments “Guidelines for Services Providing Injecting Equipment” provided detail on the minimum dataset which should be collected during an IEP transaction. Previously, data was collected on paper at each IEP site and then entered centrally onto an Access database. This system required staff to record basic information for each transaction and collate end of month figures before posting the data to be entered. This process was time consuming and the data quality was inevitably poor. The Neo system involves direct entry of the minimum dataset at the point of service delivery via a dedicated laptop.
NEO helps to ensure robust and consistent data collection across all IEPs and the information collected allows a high quality service to be provided to clients accessing the service. It enables trends and patterns in illicit injecting drug use to be identified quickly and allows services to respond to emerging trends quickly. A further recommendation of the national guidelines was to identify and respond to the individual client’s needs, involving asking clients basic information on injecting practices. Neo allows sites to keep individualised health notes on clients including, details about their drug use, injecting site injuries or harm reduction information provided. The system has the added advantage that once initial registration information is completed clients are then able to access any of the 70 sites without re-registering whilst still retaining basic anonymity. The reporting capabilities of the system allow stock levels to be managed more effectively, therefore reducing waste. Neo also allows drug alerts to be sent to IEP’s instantly which means that urgent safety messages can be passed to clients immediately. This was shown to be highly effective recently in Scotland where information on the anthrax outbreak was transmitted to services and clients immediately.
An independent research company undertook an evaluation of the NEO system. Initial findings have been reported back to the commissioners and the report will be published.
The evaluation findings showed that feedback from pharmacists, nursing and other staff who use the system has been extremely positive since the introduction of the system, as it enabled staff to dramatically improve client care while reducing the time spent on paper work.
Key findings from the evaluation include:
- The majority of pharmacies rated all aspects of the NEO system as very easy or easy to use.
- The majority of pharmacies rated their experience of using the NEO system as good or excellent.
- Pharmacies indicated that the introduction of the NEO system had positively impacted on client relationships or that their relationship had remained the same.
- Pharmacies were very positive about the training and support they had received at the initial implementation and on an ongoing basis.
An independent customer satisfaction survey of clients using IEPs showed that the majority were satisfied that their personal information was handled confidentially.
NEO has been specifically designed to meet the needs of staff and chaotic drug users in harm reduction settings. It is accessed via the world wide web and therefore is able to be accessed from mobile as well as fixed sites. Neo allows harm reduction interventions to be tailored for the clients needs following assessment and has the added advantage of providing service managers with detailed reports for service development purposes for this challenging client group. Ideally all IEPs would use the system, which would allow accurate information from a difficult to identify population on the numbers and patterns of illicit injecting drug use to be gathered nationally. Following the successful development and introduction of the system in Greater Glasgow and Clyde a further 4 Scottish Health Boards are now in the process of introducing the system based on the successes of the Glasgow pilot. There has been national and international interest in the system and it has been demonstrated to a range of external groups. The system is in the process of being further developed to allow the recording of naloxone distribution
Birmingham DAAT
We use Neo for both our needle exchange and supervised consumption services. The system is simple to use and can be tailored to the specific needs of each service locally. I have also been impressed by the support I have had from the Neo team.