NHS IT, Records and Data

Personal Health Records: empowering people

18.07.18: Stewart Fishman, product manager for Personal Health Records (PHRs) at NHS Digital, writes for NHE to discuss the empowering impact PHRs can have for patients. Imagine a future where people can easily choose from a range of secure, usable...

NHS still largest buyer of outdated tech ‘popular last time England was in World Cup semi-final’

13.07.18: The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) has revealed that NHS hospital trusts still own a staggering 9,000 fax machines, making the health system the world’s largest buyer of a technology “that was in popular use about the last time Engl...

Major NHS breach means 150,000 patients had confidential data used without consent

04.07.18: Just one month after the roll-out of GDPR, it has been revealed that a staggering 150,000 patients have been affected by an NHS data breach where confidential information only requested to be used to provide them with care was also exploited for...

Connected health cities

04.07.18: Professor Niels Peek, director of Greater Manchester Connected Health City, tells us about the perks of using patient data and digital technologies to rapidly improve our health service. In a society where information is the currency of cho...

Two new areas chosen to become local health and care record exemplars

28.06.18: Two new areas – Yorkshire and the Humber, covering West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and Humberside; and Thames Valley and Surrey, covering Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Surrey – have been chosen to becom...

Private health data will be integrated into NHS systems to level out standards of care

27.06.18: Data collected from independent healthcare services will be funnelled into NHS systems and standards for the first time in order to address the long-standing concern that privatised care isn’t transparent enough. In a new initiative...

NHS will convert space technology into health solutions in £4m scheme

26.06.18: Up to four lucky applicants will have the unique chance to work alongside the UK Space Agency to turn technology originally designed for extraplanetary discovery – from exploration to satellite communications – into medical solutions...

Lessons from WannaCry

20.06.18: Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, warns that the UK Government must take seriously the threat of a more sophisticated cyber-attack in light of last year’s WannaCry fiasco. On Friday 12 May 2017, th...

E-referral service rolled out by over half of NHS trusts

12.06.18: Over half of all acute trusts in the NHS in England have now switched over to the NHS e-referral service (e-RS). Traditional paper referrals are being phased out across all trusts and, from October, providers will only be paid for activity that...

NHS England ‘far too slow’ to address misdirected clinical correspondence issue

07.06.18: The NHS has wasted almost £2.5m on reviewing the handling of misdirected clinical correspondence, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has said. According to the committee’s report, NHS England was “far too slow” to treat...

GDPR: Record rights and wrongs

06.06.18: As patients get stronger legal rights to access and challenge the contents of their medical records, Dr Carol Chu, Medical Defence Union (MDU) medico-legal adviser, looks at the implications for clinicians and healthcare managers. Requests...

WannaCry: Has enough progress been made in the NHS?

06.06.18: Last year's major cyber-attack highlighted the importance of being prepared for digital threats. But what progress has really been made since then, and what else needs to change to ensure the NHS isn't vulnerable? Adam Wright, policy o...

Data sharing to improve care: the GP potential

18.05.18: As sharing data across organisations becomes the norm in the NHS, will general practice embrace its potential to improve the care we deliver to patients? Rebecca Fisher, a GP and policy fellow at the Health Foundation, investigates. “...

Is the NHS ready for another WannaCry?

02.05.18: NHE’s Seamus McDonnell on the plans put in place to protect trusts and other NHS organisations from potential future cyber-attacks. In May 2017, the NHS’s cyber protection plans were thrust into the limelight after a ransomware...

Havant MP leads calls for NHS to go fully digital, saving taxpayer ‘billions’

01.05.18: An MP has today published a report calling for the NHS to scrap paper forms of recording and go fully digital as part of the ‘fourth Industrial Revolution’ which would allow patients to take on more control of their treatment. ...