Patients need assurance on online health records
Patients need to be convinced that electronic personal health records (ePHRs) are safe and will benefit them, a group of leading academics have warned. The academics argue that although ePHRs, such as the UK’s HealthSpace, have huge potential patients have not yet been convinced and the business case is still to be established. They say […]
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DH explains summary and detailed records
Guidance on how the two elements of the NHS electronic patient record – the detailed and summary records – will work in England has been released by the Department of Health. The guidance re-iterates that only the Summary Care Record (SCR) will be a national system, and that patients can opt-out from data being visible […]
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Bury PCT becomes second site for summary care records
More than 20 GP practices from Bury Primary Care Trust (PCT) have become the second early adopter site for the Summary Care Record (SCR) as Connecting for Health (CfH) prepares to upload the first SCRs to the spine over the next few weeks. A total of 23 out of 32 practices in Bury, covering 73 […]
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Careful and cautious progress on Electronic Prescriptions
Tim Donohoe, the head of the NHS Electronic Prescriptions Service programme, tells Fiona Barr why progress will remain ‘careful and cautious’.
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EMIS seeks 100 pilot practices for patient record access
A patient record access group is looking for 100 EMIS practices to take part in a pioneering project allowing patients to view their medical records over the internet. The Record Access Collaborative, run by South-east London GP Dr Brian Fisher and funded by EMIS, has been testing patient record access in an informal project involving […]
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Lessons already being learned from early adopters
Dr Gillian Braunold explains how pragmatism and common sense are the touchstone of the summary care record early adopters, which are already shaping policy for future roll-out.
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Framework sets out plan for joined up IT
The government has set out a radical plan for joining up health and social care IT systems and sharing information about individuals and communities across services. The Commissioning Framework for Health and Wellbeing, now out for consultation from the Department of Health and the Department for Communities and Local Government, says councils, PCTs and practice […]
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Summary care records planned for end of 2008
Connecting for Health is planning for every patient in England to have a complete Summary Care Record by the end of 2008. Guidance prepared by CfH for strategic health authorities makes it clear that the Clinical Summary Record will be implemented in two phases. Phase one, due to begin by Easter, will consist of an […]
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Patients key to NPfIT fate
In the first of a two-part interview, BMA chairman, James Johnson, tells Joe Fernandez why patients will decide ultimately the National Programme for IT’s fate.
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Call for pay to discuss records with patients
GP representatives are calling for GP practices to be paid for the work involved in discussing records with patients before they are uploaded to the spine. The British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee has told GPs that it is continuing to back an opt-in consent model for the Summary Care Record but is aware that […]
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