Sowerby conference: the power of medical records

Electronic health records as important as the thermometer and the stethoscope, says new report from IGHI's Centre for Health Policy.

On Tuesday 17^th June, health experts gathered at the London Stock Exchange for the Centre for Health Policy’s ‘eHealth for Better Care Conference’. 

The conference was to mark the release of a new report ‘Bringing together primary and secondary care data to improve patient care’ authored by the Sowerby Commission. 

Founded in 2013 with support from the Peter Sowerby Foundation, the Sowerby Commission are a group of experts established by the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) at Imperial College London working on a programme of research and development into electronic health records, healthcare data, and health informatics policy.  

The report states that electronic health records are as essential to good care as the thermometer and the stethoscope, but medical records are currently separated in siloes – hospital, GP and clinic - and there are technical and cultural barriers to sharing them, including a reluctance by doctors to give up control.

Their report suggests that there are major benefits to health from sharing records, first by ensuring all staff caring for a patient have access to details of  their condition, medication and test results, and secondly to improve care for the whole population through audit and research. 

The Sowerby Commission Report lays out five critical action areas that will help accelerate the impact of eHealth in England and advises on how to minimise the risks, especially those associated with population-level research databases.

The report says:

• Good records are essential to good careThey must be available to everyone treating the patient
  
  Patients must have access to their own records, to ensure they are up to date and accurate (and to allow them to book appointments, order scrips, and get more involved) 
  
  They must be available for research to improve care, with appropriate safeguards to ensure confidentiality and respect for public opinion
  
  Records should be integrated across health and social care to ensure a seamless service, especially for the rising numbers with chronic conditions cared for by multiple services that need co-ordinating.

The launch event was moderated by Roger Taylor, Director of Research and Public Affairs at Dr Foster Intelligence.  Speakers at the event included Professor the Lord Darzi, Director of IGHI, Tim Kelsey, National Director for Patients and Information at NHS England, Rt Hon Stephen Dorrell MP, MP for Charnwood and former Chair of the Health Select Committee, Dr Theresa Cullen, Chief Medical Information Officer at the Veterans Health Administration in Washington, Sir Tom Hughes-Hallett, Chair of the Sowerby Commission and Executive Chair of IGHI, Dr Ben Goldacre, Wellcome Research Fellow in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,  Dr Scott Ratzan, Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Editor-in-Chief at Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, Jeremy Taylor, Chief Executive of National Voices and David Stables, Trustee of the Sowerby Foundation. 

Professor the Lord Ara Darzi, Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, said: “Better data is key to improving the quality and safety of care. Data is also the most effective integrator of care between the different care settings. It is also the fertiliser for new research ideas where gaps exist in both the quality and safety of care. If you cannot measure something, you cannot improve it. The NHS should embrace this report and at the same time, ensure that patient confidentially is protected”.

Sir Thomas Hughes Hallett, Executive Chair of Imperial’s Institute for Global Health Innovation and Chair of the Sowerby Commission, said:  “We can see that great progress has been made in moving the NHS toward a paperless future.  But experience from elsewhere in the world shows there is much more to be done to deliver the benefits from electronic health records to patients and help NHS staff deliver great care. Adopting the recommendations in this report would speed their adoption across the country.”

Dr David Stables, Trustee of the Sowerby Foundation said “The report is very timely and relevant.  It informs us that if we do not share data in the way that is necessary, not only are we breaching the rights and obligations of the patients, we're breaching the rights and obligations of the clinicians.  It is unsafe”

A video recording of the full event will be available shortly.