Q. What are the main IT issues I should focus on this year?

A. I think the most important issues could be summed up as value for money, security and backup. Your practice IT systems cost you a lot of money each year. Ask yourself are you getting value. Is your practice software management system contributing to the efficient and safe running of your practice? Could you be making better use of it? Consider spending a few hours in a nearby practice that uses your particular
software system well. If possible, bring your practice manager along with you. Decide on improvements you want
to make, schedule staff training and make it happen.

Security threats to personal data regularly hit the headlines, usually because some company has suffered a data breach. Often it is the activity of staff rather than technical problems that create the problem. Remind your staff that practice computers, networks and Internet connections are only for work. Staff should not use your systems for personal email, browsing, shopping, booking flights, Facebook, Twitter or anything else. On the technical side, if you have any legacy computers running Windows XP, then you need to upgrade the Windows version or replace the computers. You also need to ensure you have up to date antivirus software and a firewall. Security is such a complex issue that, if possible, you should organise an information security audit of your practice and follow the recommendations of the experts.

And lastly, backup. Ideally you should have both local and online backups in operation. Once a year you should do a test restore to ensure that the backup is configured properly, that all necessary files are being included and that the system can be quickly restored to running order should your server crash. There is an IT saying that digital data that only exists in one place does not exist at all. The consequences
of losing data are catastrophic for you and your patients. Pay attention to backup.