Parents in London are being invited to register to use the eRedbook personal child health record.
In an update on its website, Sitekit, the Scottish company that developed the digital alternative to the familiar ‘Redbook’, said Central London Community Healthcare has become the first in the capital to invite parents to register.
Parents in Barnet, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster who want to use the record have to record some key details on the site, sign up for a Microsoft HealthVault account, and then confirm their details with a health visitor to gain access.
Sitekit is working with five London trusts to field-test eRedbook, which records immunisations, tests, and key developmental milestones. The eventual aim is a capital-wide roll-out, and NHS England – London Region has introduced an eRedbook CQUIN to encourage trusts to adopt the initiative.
When the announcement of a London roll-out was made last year, Kenny Gibson, NHS England’s head of early years, immunisation and military health, told Digital Health News that the first step would be a technical step to make sure the eRedbook worked with all its child health information systems.
These included: TPP’s SystmOne, Emis Web, RiO and CareNotes. In its update, Sitekit said the initial work has gone so well that it is now also working with Northgate to field test flowing of results from the Newborn Bloodspot Screening programme, the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme, and the New Infant Physical Examination.
“This will enable parents to easily access their screening results on their phone, tablet or computer,” the update says.
The development of the eRedbook has taken four years. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health announced that it was working with a number of commercial suppliers to create a digital version of the Redbook in 2012.
These included Sitekit and Harlow Printing, which produces the paper book, and Microsoft, as the initiative is built on its HealthVault platform.
Prototype work was piloted and evaluated by a number of NHS partner organisations, including Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust, which had more than 500 families using the eRedbook by the end of 2014.
The royal college endorsed the eRedbook in November 2014, saying that it would “bring the Redbook into a 21st century way of working” and improve parent engagement.
The eRedbook has also been cited by ministers as an example of a digital initiative that the NHS should adopt.
The London roll-out was announced in September last year, when Daniel Moulin, the director of Sitekit, said he hoped it would “inspire care providers throughout the UK to offer digital access to personal records for all citizens.”