It is with great pleasure and pride that ICHP launched DigitalHealth.London, alongside UCLPartners, Health Innovation Network and MedCity.
Aptly hashtagged ‘our’ digital health, this initiative aims to give patients control of their own health and well-being using technology, and to empower care providers to make informed care decisions by placing health data at their fingertips.
Both DigitalHeath.London and ICHP’s programmes of work clearly articulate the need to consistently and readily adopt technology to make healthcare more efficient, effective, and accessible across the capital. To achieve this, programmes must be shaped through co-design with patients as well as clinical, academic and provider partners.
At the core of this lies the patient’s electronic clinical record. Taking a proper part in the management of their own care means that patients will participate in the management of their clinical record. Clinicians who are treating and working with a patient should have (permitted) access to pertinent electronic records held in other systems. Most importantly the system must be able to interface with other digital and web based applications which patients wish to use to support their care.
ICHP and DigitalHealth.London are working closely with NHSE’s Health London Partnership initiative to create interoperable care record systems across the capital which will also act as a platform for digital health technologies.
ICHP has also woven technology and interoperability into a number of our own work programmes to respond to the needs of our people in North West London. For example,
- Our neuro-rehabilitation project now uses a web-based referral system so patients with acquired brain injuries have access to tailored care, in the appropriate place, at the right time. This has contributed to a 50% reduction in time spent waiting for a transfer to the right facility from an acute hospital
- The research programme we are leading will bring academic and NHS institutions together to create a trusted data repository to improve research opportunities which will enhance the health of the population
- Across North West London, the first system wide roll-out of Patients Know Best is empowering patients by putting them in control of their own health records, giving them the ability to decide which healthcare professionals should have access to them, and enabling clinicians to have a single common view of the patient’s health status and treatments.
I’m pleased that ICHP and other London partners are joining forces to embed meaningful digital health innovations in the health system, directly responding to our local needs.
Written by Dr Adrian Bull, Managing Director
More information on our work programmes can be found here: http://imperialcollegehealthpartners.com/our-work/
