Brian Murray
Sales Director UK & Ireland
Shared care records are one of the most exciting and impactful developments in healthcare today. Across the UK, integrated care systems are moving beyond organisational boundaries to create a joined-up record of each patient’s health and care. The traditional approach has been to maintain a federated view of data; we must now move towards the next generation of Shared care records based on persisted, structured, and usable data.
Whether someone is in a hospital, at their GP, or receiving community support, shared care records make it possible for people looking after the patients to see the same information and make safer, faster decisions. At Better, we are proud to already play a role in this transformation through the Universal Care Plan in London, which has enabled over 100,000 care plans to be created and shared across health and care teams, helping to deliver safer and more personalised care.
Across Europe, we are seeing similar stories unfold. Slovenia, Greece, Malta, Catalonia, and Ireland are already building national and regional shared care records using openEHR and open platforms. These examples show what is possible when structured, interoperable data is at the core of care delivery. They prove that the vision of safe, connected care is not a distant goal, but a reality already being lived today, and the UK is well-positioned to learn from and build on these successes.
The ambition to expand further on this is clearly set out in the NHS 10 Year Health Plan. The government plans to give patients real control over their data through a single, secure, and patient-controlled record. The next generation of Shared care records is how we start to deliver on that ambition. They are breaking down silos, ensuring that information follows the patient, and giving healthcare workers the full picture they need to provide personalised care. For patients, this means no longer repeating their medical history at every appointment, and for clinicians, it means being empowered with the right information at the right time.
I look forward to seeing many of you there and to continuing this important conversation together.
