High-quality data is the foundation on which to build the NHS’s 10-year plan
- 10 December 2024
We know that data is essential to the government’s plan for healthcare. But transitioning from analogue to digital is not merely a technical challenge, writes Reecha Sofat, chair of the Professional Record Standards Body
As a clinician, researcher and the new chair of the Professional Record Standards Body, I know that to truly enable the government’s three strategic shifts — from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and treatment to prevention — we must start with high-quality data.
High-quality data is the golden thread, connecting care provision to research and development, and back again, in a continuous transformative cycle.
Information standards ensure that data — such as patient records, test results, or care plans — is collected and stored in a consistent, secure, and understandable way across the UK. They allow us to turn ‘big data’ into practical insights that drive preventive, personalised care and support planning, research, and innovation. But how do they support the three shifts?
From hospital to community
Think of information standards like seatbelts — a simple but critical measure that saves lives. Just as seatbelts reduce fatalities and injuries on the road, standards ensure that the right information is available at the right time, allowing health and care professionals to make informed decisions.
When a person transitions out of hospital, back to care in their community, having a standardised summary of their diagnosis, medications, and follow-up needs ensures continuity and safety in their care. Without this, the risk of errors and delays, such as duplicated treatments or missed important follow-up actions, rises dramatically. When every clinician knows exactly what information needs to be collected — and it’s gathered in a standardised, structured format — the guesswork is removed, boosting both patient safety and job satisfaction and allowing clinicians to focus on care.
Implementation of PRSB’s e-Discharge Summary Standard can save GP practices up to 60–80 hours per week.
From analogue to digital
Technologies come and go rapidly, but data remains constant, making it essential to get right.
Transitioning from analogue to digital is not merely a technical challenge; it requires cultural, operational, and clinical evolution. Information standards are the bedrock of this shift, providing a common language and stable high-quality data foundation to unify diverse systems, reduce errors, improve safety and enable innovations like AI to drive efficiency.
Currently, the majority of digital investment and effort is focused on front-end technical delivery, such as designing and installing systems, with little attention paid to the vital and complex task of embedding these changes into everyday practice. Provider organisations are left to manage the hardest part — ensuring the systems are successfully adopted and effectively used — often without the necessary resources or support.
The success of a ‘single patient record’ is dependent on maintaining public, professional, and supplier trust and system stability to generate advocacy and momentum. Implementation must build upon the rich insight, learning and investment that has been made in consolidating patient records over the last 10 years.
All 42 ICSs are using PRSB’s Core Information Standard to develop their shared care records. This is because it reflects the consensus view of clinicians, patients and service users at scale and as such is endorsed by 25 professional organisations, including the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. Let’s start there.
Treatment to prevention
Information standards underpin a preventative, personalised approach to care by ensuring consistent, available data for tracking ill-health trends, assessing healthcare interventions, and identifying risks early. They are critical to making data more usable for research purposes, allowing us to learn from the care we deliver and improve treatments over time.
Information standards also drive the accuracy and efficiency of screening programs and structured education initiatives like the Diabetes Prevention Programme, which depend on accurate, up-to-date patient records for issuing invitations, managing recalls, and enrolling individuals. With more recent innovations, such as the use of artificial intelligence, we have the opportunity to really speed up the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases. But these innovations depend on high-quality standardised data. They depend on information standards being in widespread use.
The focus on prevention is further strengthened by empowering individuals to participate in their own care, fostering better health outcomes and more efficient use of resources. PRSB standards like About Me, Shared Decision-Making, and Personalised Care and Support Plan Standards allow people to share their needs and preferences and co-create their care plans. For instance, the About Me Standard enables individuals to communicate how they take medication or prefer to interact during care. This agency not only improves satisfaction with services, but also reduces the demand for reactive care — a vital step in managing NHS waiting lists.
Starting with standards is not just one piece of the transformation puzzle. It’s the first and most essential step toward building a health and care system that is fit for the future.
