Yesterday NHS England began the roll-out of the new NHS App across six regions in England
The app will allow patients to book appointments, order repeat prescriptions, see their medical records and set data-sharing preferences.
The test sites include GP Practices in Liverpool, Staffordshire, Redditch and Bromsgrove, Wyre Forest and South Worcestershire, Wolverhampton, Hastings and Rother, Bristol, North Somerset and Gloucestershire.
The app will be gradually rolled out to GP practices across England from December 2018.
The roll-out is part of Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s bid to make the NHS “the most advanced health system in the world” through investing in cutting-edge technology.
In addition to the NHS App, more than £200 million will be devoted to transforming hospital IT systems, interoperability of systems and the quality of data in the NHS.
The reveal of the NHS App was announced at the UK Health Show which took place in London this week. Sarah Wilkinson, chief executive of NHS Digital, said: “The NHS App is about putting the patient in control of their data, their condition and their care.”
Juliet Bauer, chief digital officer at NHS England provided further insight into the services the app would aim to offer including symptom checking and triage; access to patient records; and national data opt-out.
We welcome initiatives such as the NHS App to empower patients to make decisions based on their health information.
Over the last year The Charity have been developing BRIAN (Brain TumouR Information and Analysis Network) – a patient-led, pioneering databank which will enable those affected by a brain tumour diagnosis to learn from the experiences of others to guide their own treatment and care.
BRIAN will not only permit patients to make better informed decisions, but also enable clinicians to benchmark their performance and service provision.
Researchers will also be able to access a rich source of brain tumour patient data to accelerate research into new and existing treatments and facilitate the recruitment and running of clinical trials.
Through an interactive web-app, patient and carers will be able to input information about their treatment, care, quality of life, benefits, symptoms and side effects.
The real power of BRIAN will be its ability to arrange data in such a way that every item can be related to another, enabling sophisticated analysis of any part of a patient’s pathway.
The NHS App is a stepping stone in the direction of using the power of data to change how patients are treated.
We look forward to the opportunities that may open up to share data collected by BRIAN about brain tumour patients with the NHS to provide equal access to treatment and care across the UK.