How can healthcare best use past, present and future information to support transformation?

Read the detailed report here.

That the NHS has an abundance of information but a lack of insight is a truth frequently repeated. At some trusts, hardcopy notes continue to occupy valuable space while the intelligence they record remains difficult to access or analyse. Even where electronic patient records systems are being installed, there remains the open question of how best to use previous information – and, indeed, how to adapt as software systems advance and the structure of the NHS evolves.

There are additional complications: concerns about information governance, patient trust; about keeping information safe; a need to develop an understanding of how to use information across all constituent organisations within newly statutory integrated care systems.

To consider some of these issues, HSJ  recently held a roundtable event. Run in association with Iron Mountain, it brought together panellists from a range of backgrounds to consider one central question – how can healthcare best use past, present and future health information?

The core theme to emerge: the need to establish clarity of purpose around data – a shared understanding of what information is being collected, why, in what contexts it can best be used, and in which standard format it should be recorded. In building this understanding it should also be possible to understand what data no longer needs to be collected, and to form a basis on which to establish effective governance and to build public trust.