This year's First DataBank Europe Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists UKCPA Information Technology Award has been awarded to the Pharmacy department of The Princess of Wales Hospital at Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust (ABM), it was announced today. The project team is commended for its development of an IT system to improve the communication of patient discharge information between patient care settings.

The annual award, which is in its seventh year, aims to promote and publicise pharmacy initiatives where the innovative use of IT has played a key role in the success of the overall project. This year's winning project is the Electronic Transfer of Care (eTOC), an electronic discharge summary which has replaced the ineffective and error-prone paper process at the hospital.

The eTOC, which is accessed through the hospital's Patient Management System, allows for the effective electronic transfer of patient-specific information to the patient's GP upon discharge of that patient from the hospital. Information on diagnosis, procedures, test results and changes to medication is added to the eTOC throughout the patient's stay. The hospital's wireless network enables the eTOC to be accessed from anywhere within the building, allowing clinicians to add information at the patient's bedside thus minimising transcribing errors…