Leeds Teaching Hospitals approves further development of in-house EHR

The board of The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has given the green light for the development of its in-house electronic health record (EHR) to continue for another three years.

Known as PPM+, Leeds’ own EHR system has been in development since 2003 and is now integrated with over 35 systems across health and social care, powering a local integrated care record for 2.8 million patients.

In house, the system offers functionality including e-prescribing and electronic observations.

Richard Corbridge, chief digital and information officer at the trust, told Digital Health News it was great to see such levels of enthusiasm from the board as originally PPM+ was seen as an “interim solution”.

“It’s pretty amazing they made the decision to make PPM+ the EPR (electronic patient record) solution for the next three years,” Corbridge said.

“I think the board saw that PPM+ is so much part of the Leeds way.”

Corbridge, who joined the trust in November after serving as CIO at eHealth Ireland, added: “The decision to put PPM+ at the centre until at least 2021 gives the digital team an ability to concentrate all its efforts on ensuring that PPM+ does what clinicians and patients need.”

This year, there are plans to add a “person-held record” aspect to the system, with the stated aim of placing information about their health and wellbeing in the hands of every citizen.