Education on standards

During a session on clinical leadership for digital health and care, chair of the PRSB, Iain Carpenter, described how standards for care record sharing using digital technology can transform the quality, safety and efficiency of care. He added that achieving the benefits will require clinical vision and leadership. The PRSB will represent the ‘clinical and patient’ voice, to ensure that the information shared through digital records is relevant to the patient and will enhance their care.

During the session (hosted by the British Computing Society), senior lecturer in clinical data science and honorary consultant in cardiology at the Farr Institute of Health Informatics, Dr Ami Banerjee, said that education around information sharing needed to improve if we are to see the benefits of implementation. He pointed out that informatics teaching is highly variable between medical schools, something which needs to change. Banerjee also spoke about the NHS Digital Academy, a virtual organisation that will provide training and development opportunities for chief clinical Information officers (CCIOs), chief information officers (CIOs) and other leaders across the country.

Meanwhile, professor of health services research at Swansea University Medical School, John Williams, spoke about the development of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics, which is being established as the professional membership body for all clinical informaticians across the UK.

Interoperability

In addition to educating people on the importance of standards and ensuring the content is fit for purpose, the PRSB is working with other organisations to ensure interoperability between IT systems, so they can share information easily.

During a session run by techUK and INTEROpen, co-founder of INTEROpen Dr Dr Amir Mehrkar, urged collaboration between clinicians, health and care workers, standards organisations and IT system suppliers. He said that INTEROPen will act as an umbrella group, made up of key interoperability networks, all of whom will collaborate on the design and application of technical interoperability standards. Others under the umbrella include NHS England, NHS Digital, CCIO Network, TechUK and OpenEHR. Working in partnership with these organisations, the PRSB will represent the wider clinical, professional and patient view to support the development of interoperability standards. This will ensure information sharing in the health and social care sector is safe and effective, and that we will help sustainability and transformation programmes to provide better care within local communities.