University Hospitals Birmingham create patient records solution

Patients at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham will soon be able to view and update their own medical records, thanks to a pioneering solution aimed at giving patients more control over their care. The myhealth@QEHB system is being trialled by liver patients, enabling individuals to view documents about their care, details of past and future appointments, medication details and the results of tests, as well as upload results themselves. It has been developed in-house by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and is currently being trialed by 12 patients of consultant hepatologist, James Ferguson. He said: "I believe patients should have access to their own records. It is their health and they deserve the right to see their letters and blood results in an easy-to-access format. The system may also improve communication between healthcare professionals as a patient will be able to show their record to any doctor or nurse they choose." Director of informatics, Daniel Ray, added: "The idea has been developed with patients involved all the way through, so we know it meets their needs. There's nothing really like this in the UK and we hope it will help a lot of patients in years to come as we roll it out."