PRSB Chair, Professor Maureen Baker discusses PRSB’s priorities for 2020

“As we move into 2020, we’re going to see a greater focus on the relationship between health and social care, and we’ll be working closely with different regions across the country to develop better tools for sharing information between services.

Previous research by the PRSB has highlighted gaps in information across the care sector. For example the care home survey in 2017 showed that 73% of homes do not receive proper discharge summaries from hospitals.

We plan to work closely with different health and social care providers to further develop standards for social care to bridge this gap and improve information flows. This is also likely to help support shared decision making, which is a key part of the government’s plans to support people in getting involved in their own care.

As part of the drive to empower people, the importance of listening to the patient voice is becoming increasingly recognised. The use of app technology, online consultations, as well as scientific breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and genomic testing are likely to increase in 2020, as we see a rise in the number of people getting actively involved in their own care.

This year we started a new project to determine what and how genetic information should be shared with patients and clinicians when it impacts medications. The guidance from this project will be published early next year. Pharmacogenomics, the way genetics impacts medications, is a rapidly developing area of clinical care. In addition to working with clinicians, educators and colleges to develop the way information is shared, there will also be recommendations about education and training for the workforce as this information starts being used in practice.

Meanwhile we’ll be engaging with patients in discussions on app use in health and care, to determine how they use digital technologies to manage their health and care and what they look for in a tool. We’ve got much to look forward to next year, and we hope, by the end of the next decade, we will have built a truly integrated health and care system.”