UK consults on widening access to patient information
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
NHS Connecting for Health (CfH), the UK government agency responsible for managing the IT modernisation programme, is consulting the public and the healthcare industry, including regulatory bodies, on making greater use of the patient information that it holds on record. CfH lists "medical research, disease surveillance, screening, needs assessment and preventative activities" as being among its potential uses. The agency also proposes to create an "information custodian" body with powers to decide who uses which information. The 34-page consultation document is available from the CfH website: www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk. The deadline for responses is December 10 2008.