QinetiQ Provides Unique Information System to Care Quality Commission (CQC)

FARNBOROUGH, England, August 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

QinetiQ is enabling the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to analyse the opinions expressed by thousands of service users and CQC assessors and inspectors about the performance of health and social care providers through the introduction of a radical new information system.

The system can automatically extract, categorise and analyse sentiment from the vast quantities of comments about the performance of care homes, hospitals, dentists and from April 2013 GPs, which the CQC receive direct from the public and their assessors and inspectors across the country.

The initial 18-month contract for the system follows a successful pilot phase undertaken last year.

QinetiQ, supported by Autonomy, Okana and TheySay (a new Oxford University spin out company), is utilising decades of experience and expertise, developed in the world of military intelligence and security, to provide a solution unique to the CQC.

The system is powered by two 'software engines' and tailored to process views expressed about the provider, categorised into the CQC's essential standards of quality and safety.

QinetiQ's project director, Dr Andrew Rankin said,

"We have been working closely with the CQC for several years now and developed our understanding of the issues that they face. This has enabled us to apply our technical expertise (and
that of our partners) to provide a solution that is unique to them."

The new system will allow the CQC to systematically and quickly assess vast quantities of documents and information, by feeding the knowledge and domain expertise of their staff into the system to help it 'learn' to analyse information in the way their experts currently do. It offers a scalable solution with growth potential for the future, exploiting new data sources as they become available, for example, from HealthWatch England.

For further information please contact http://www.qinetiq.com

A FTSE250 company, QinetiQ uses its domain knowledge to provide technical support and know-how to customers in the global aerospace, defence and security markets. QinetiQ's unique position enables it to be a trusted partner to government organisations, predominantly in the UK and the US, including defence departments, intelligence services and security agencies.

For further information, please contact
QinetiQ Press Office onTel: +44(0)1252-39-3500
Email: PressOffice@QinetiQ.com
Visit the website athttp://www.QinetiQ.com