On Tuesday 20 September, PRSB had the pleasure of holding its Annual General Meeting to share details of its work on creating and developing standards which form the foundations of person-centred care.

Attendees were greeted by PRSB Chair, Professor Maureen Baker CBE, who then introduced the first panel session speaker, James Sanderson, Director of Personalised Care at NHS England and Improvement. James provided an interesting reflection on the advancement of medicine, some current issues in healthcare and how the comprehensive model of personalised care can help combat them. He highlighted the importance of conversation with patients as a crucial step towards person-centred care: “We can advance all sorts of things by apps and wearables, but having a conversation with people is probably one of the most powerful elements we can deploy. We need to start looking at people as a whole person rather than just the conditions.”

James was followed by PRSB CEO, Lorraine Foley, who presented a report on the organisation’s progress and achievements in the past year. She outlined the extent of growth in membership and partnerships with organisations and individuals, committed to the development and implementation of standards. Lorraine emphasised how the PRSB is dedicated to joining up health and social care: “Why has that always been important to us? It’s simply because there is no integrated care if social care is not a full and equal partner in that.” It is estimated that 1.5 million adults have unmet social care needs, and that better integrated care could help save up to 3 million emergency department visits.

In 2021, the PRSB published 11 standards; more than ever before. These included standards for shared decision-making, social prescribing, and palliative and end of life care, with more in development throughout 2022. Lorraine said: “We’re seeing no slowing of demand for standards, and the diversity of projects that we’re working on is really striking.”

The meeting also featured a discussion on the About Me standard, led by the PRSB’s Non-Executive Director, Sarah Brooke. Speakers included Trishna Bharadia, an award-winning health advocate and patient engagement advisor, and Dr Roland Appel, Local Health and Care Record Architecture Lead, who were asked to provide their views on the application of this standard. Trishna shared an important thought: “If people are given the means to take more control of their own healthcare, the system will work better for everyone. Implementing About Me seems a simple first step in achieving this.”

Trishna also talked about her challenges in attempting to create an About Me profile at her surgery, ranging from difficulties in reaching a relevant contact, to finding out that the IT system doesn’t support the standard. She suggested there was “a missed opportunity to engage with her at a more individualised care level.”

Talking from a supplier perspective, Person Centre Software’s Andrew Coles added: “The widespread proliferation of the About Me standard has to come from the values and the mission of the people that make the software. It’s true to our hearts, so it was an easy decision for us to champion the standard and find ways of implementing it.”

Our last panel discussion was hosted by the PRSB’s Director of Partner Solutions, Rebecca Hughes, and explored the benefits of embarking upon conformance assessment journeys via the Standards Partnerships Scheme. She was joined by PRSB’s Lead Assessor, Annette Gilmore, and Ben Wilson, Product Solution Director at Orion Health, at which point it was announced that the healthcare supplier had recently achieved conformance against the core information standard – the first company in the world to do so. Speaking about the award of the PRSB Quality Mark, Ben commented: “We need to make sure that this standard is well understood by other suppliers – that’s when I think we can start to gain the benefits – when information is recorded and then exposed in a standards-based way to suppliers like ourselves.”

Read more about the PRSB’s work and achievements in the past year in our Annual Report. You may wish to take a look at the presentation slides or take a look at the meeting recording.