The inaugural Leading Healthcare Innovation Summit (LHIS) was a great success, with a strong delegation of exhibitors and participants spanning health and social care. The agenda was wide-ranging, and attendees heard from clinicians, digital health professionals, health tech suppliers and social care experts on pressing topics including how we better use digital for ICSs, AI, remote patient monitoring and shared care records.

The PRSB team exhibited at the event and led on two sessions. Our Clinical Director, Dr Nilesh Bharakhada chaired a session with leaders from regional shared care records including Dr Emma Davis, clinical lead for Hampshire and Isle of Wight, NHS England’s lead for shared care records John Farenden and Paula Bennett, Chief Nursing Information Officer at Health Innovation Manchester and the Greater Manchester Care Record. Digital sharing of health and care data has moved on by leaps and bounds, in part due to the pandemic; the speakers discussed how they are building on that momentum to deliver shared care records that pull people’s data from different care providers into a single, shareable record. 

Panellists gave their view on the next steps needed for national implementation of shared care records by 2024 and how to balance this goal with ensuring records are both comprehensive and fit for specific purposes. Panellists also identified the importance of building trust not only with professionals but also with the public, and John Farenden stressed the importance of building the framework around the person instead of services in order to achieve this.

In addition, PRSB’s Chair, Professor Maureen Baker, discussed the latest innovations in medical wearables technology in her session on the future of the self-directed patient. As Maureen explained, with over 80% of the world’s population now owners of iPhones, people can access a range of specific health measurements from the comfort of their trouser pockets. With such an influx of health information, it is crucial that people know how to use this information appropriately to manage their conditions and medical professionals must know how to respond to the increased use of wearables, such as Apple watches, for the benefit of safer care with better patient outcomes.

Registration for the 2023 event is now open.