The PRSB met with senior clinicians and Scottish government officials in Edinburgh’s historic General Register House, the oldest public record archive in the British Isles, to discuss closer working across the four nations.

Lorraine Foley, CEO, and Helene Feger, director of strategy and communications, met with clinical leads and managers from Scottish Government, National Services Scotland and several NHS Scotland boards for a lively discussion of opportunities to work jointly. We agreed that there is a vital need for widespread engagement of clinicians and professionals to use PRSB standards to promote standardisation of health and care information to make it easier to share digitally.

Marina Copping, NHS Lothian, updated the meeting on ongoing work to re-procure child health programmes across Scotland. ‘We must not miss the opportunity to introduce standardisation,’ she said. Blythe Robertson policy lead from Scottish government, talked about developing a more personalised approach to care, particularly for people with long-term conditions or at the end of life, that is innovative, manages risk well and ensures better outcomes. Standards and digitisation have a key role to play in delivering this kind of transformation of services he said.

Meanwhile, Ian McNicoll, from Fresh EHR Clinical Informatics Ltd, said we need to develop new methodologies for standards that reflect the fast-changing world of digital technologies. During the meeting, we agreed to develop digital tools for RESPECT, the UK-wide initiative to help guide treatment during emergencies or at the end of life, which the PRSB will consult upon.