ACG System UK Team
The ACG System Team helps organizations throughout the world use their available health information to:
- Measure the health care needs of their population
- Provide equitable distribution and remuneration of services, and
- Identify ways to improve the efficiency of the delivery of care.
The ACG System’s primary objective is the improved health status of a population. In keeping with this mission, the Team supports ACG System users worldwide to ensure the correct installation, implementation and interpretation of the software and its output. The Team also assists users in the customization of the ACG System to local contexts.
In the UK, the large and growing ACG System user community is currently supported by a subset of this team. Each member of the UK team has worked within the NHS as well as having been involved in relevant work at a national and international level.
Alan Thompson, MSc; Director of User Support; UK Team Leader
Mr. Thompson joined the ACG System Team in 2013. As Director of User Support, Alan’s primary responsibilities include supporting users, collaborators, and team members in maximizing the use of the ACG System. He also coordinates the UK Team in facilitating applications of the ACG System in the UK NHS.
A registered nurse by background, Mr. Thompson has over 30 years’ experience in the UK National Health Service (NHS) in clinical, operational and project management posts within hospitals and primary care. He has a keen interest in the use of information to support managerial and clinical decision-making and to inform improvements in the provision of patient-centered services.
Between 2010 and 2013, Mr. Thompson led a project to implement the ACG System across 600 GP Practices in the south of England. This role supported clinicians in optimizing the use of risk stratification information to inform clinical programs such as case management and integrated care teams. He also worked with Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to use risk stratification to support commissioning activities.
As a firm believer in sharing experience and expertise across the NHS, he established both the Southern England and national UK ACG System User groups to facilitate conversations and shared learning among NHS users of the ACG System.
Alan can be contacted at athompson@HopkinsACG.org.
James Barrett, MA, MB, BChir, MSc; Senior Analyst, UK
Dr. Barrett has been with the ACG System Team since 2009. He provides technical support to ACG System users within the NHS. He worked for 20 years in health care informatics and has a particular interest in OLAP and web-based analytical tools. He has medical qualifications and is interested in all aspects of the application of information technology in health care. He was a member of the SNOMED CT Technical Design team and has extensive experience working with the Read Code authoring project. Joining the NHS Information Authority in 1999, he worked on reporting tools to provide interactive access to HES data for NHS users. More recently he has worked for a number of years with PRIMIS+ analyzing data quality in primary care, and for the National Diabetes Audit at the NHS Information Centre analyzing the care given to patients with diabetes.
Dr. Barrett received his MA from Cambridge University.
Steve Sutch, MAppSc, BSc, DrPH; Director of Product Development
Dr. Sutch has been working with the ACG System Team since 2007. He has over 20 years experience of working in the National Health Service (NHS) in Great Britain at local, regional and national levels. He has worked with data and data collections from various aspects of activity and financial returns. His lead role in the design of HRGv35, a tool currently used for hospital payments in NHS England– and its updated version HRGv4– led to the development of analytical methods on routinely collected NHS data as well as other clinical data collections. He has an extensive working and practical knowledge of the HES/NWCS/SUS data collections.
He also worked on benchmarking systems for commissioning in Great Britain to develop a national system of tools, first in NHS Wales and later in England. As the Analytical and Statistical Services Manager of the NHS Information Authority National, Dr. Sutch oversaw the continued development of national benchmarking products, and supported the initial development of the program budget categories. He also sat on the committees responsible for the implementation of ICD-10 codes in England and Wales, and then led the development of HRGs that formed a major contribution to the redevelopment of the surgical classification (OPCS4.3, 4.4).
Through the Kings Fund project, and subsequent projects with various PCTs, Dr. Sutch has gained expertise in the application of ACGs® to NHS ambulatory data.
