Today the London Ambulance Service begins a pilot to enable its clinicians to securely access Summary Care Record data on an iPad, without the need for a smartcard or N3, by using the new NHS Identity Service to authenticate to the system.
This will give medics access to crucial information about a patient to prevent the patient having to repeat themselves, while they are in pain or distressed. This should reduce the time the medic needs to spend with each patient and will also aim to reduce A&E admissions.
NHS Digital has developed the pilot, which will use Camden Ambulance Station as an initial user base. Around 60 medics will have access to patients’ SCRs and additional information securely on their iPads. This includes vital information about a patient’s medical history such as details of long-term conditions, significant medical history, ongoing prescriptions, known allergies and any other specific needs.
This is a major first step for the pilot project, which aims to show that the Summary Care Record is accessible through a mobile device anywhere, without the need for a smartcard.
The pilot will last 16 weeks which will provide project teams with vital information and feedback about the products. This will be essential for ongoing product development, counting benefits experienced from a technical and end user perspective.
Mike Walker, the Programme Head responsible for NHS Identity and Mobile SCRa, said: "This mobile solution has been implemented very quickly in a real-world environment, providing meaningful insight that will inform future direction. I am extremely proud of the team. They have worked hard to get this capability built, enabled and deployed.
“We hope to see that this brings real benefits to the working day of medics and A&E staff and, most importantly, to patients.”
Stuart Crichton, Chief Clinical Information Officer at London Ambulance Service said: “This trial is an exciting opportunity to use technology to improve our patient care.
“By being able to securely access patient information on a tablet device at the patient’s side, our clinicians will have more information at their fingertips, enabling them to provide better and more informed care.
“This trial is at the forefront of our use of pioneering technology to bring about real change to the care we provide and we hope to be able to roll this system out across the capital.”
Following the pilot, the aim is to roll out the initiative across the capital so it’s available for all frontline London Ambulance Service clinicians. Next steps for the project are to increase functionality on the Mobile SCRa product and increasing availability to other devices such as Android and Windows. The project teams are also looking to pilot with different care settings.
ENDS
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