Information flow to enable integrated health care: integration or interoperability

All letters are subject to editing and may be shortened. General letters can be sent to bjgpdisc{at}rcgp.org.uk (please include your postal address for publication), and letters responding directly to BJGP articles can be submitted online via eLetters. We regret we cannot notify authors regarding publication.

For submission instructions visit: bjgp.org/letters

It is undoubtedly true that digital systems are a key enabler of the transformation that is needed in the NHS if we are to provide safe, high-quality, affordable care for all our patients now and in the future.¹

But standards for care records that ensure that the right information is captured consistently is fundamental to enabling clinicians and professionals to exchange information digitally. This is why the role of the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB), which I chair, is so important.

We need to get the systems right and this means designing them with clinical need in mind. We also need to ensure that clinicians and professionals adopt standards as fundamental to the way they record and use information to improve patient care. Last week’s report on medications errors, published by the Department of Health, reinforces this point.²

At PRSB we recently visited secondary care providers to determine factors contributing to successful digital transformation where information flows across a local health economy. With one voice they said involving local GPs was critical. PRSB has made a series of GP videos about the importance of information sharing after discharge from hospital, which can be viewed at https://theprsb.org/aboutus/videos-2/.

• © British Journal of General Practice 2018