NHS my-care

This is a joint proposal by Coventry and City Universities. It arose out of the EPSRC sandpit on Mobile and Distributed Healthcare, and specifically addresses the issue of how medical services may be delivered to the patient in a more timely, safe and effective manner.The concept of patient held health care records is not a new one. It is recognized that medical and health care professionals and the public may derive benefits from a system which enables some medical records to be kept with and updated by the patient, or potential patient. Such information may relate to life long illness and disability (such as diabetes, asthma or autism) or current drug regimes. Where records are kept with the patient, in cases of sudden illness or accident, paramedics can identify the patient, gain a picture of chronic and acute conditions, ascertain where any complications may arise, and contact the immediate family. This increases the quality of service in terms of both the efficiency and safety of the treatment.The development of such a system depends on :1) the acceptance of the concept within the medical profession and the public, 2) a secure, safe, robust and easy to technology 3) the design of an appropriate means of carrying and updating patient held health records4) the technological infrastructure at a regional, national and international level.This project will address the first three of these issues in the following ways. An attitudinal survey will be undertaken of all stakeholders to ascertain current levels of support or otherwise for such a system, in terms of perceived costs and benefits. The findings from this will be used to raise awareness and debate about patient held health records and will also provide information about the type of system that may be acceptable (for example in terms of design, information content and means of entering and updating the information). This will lead to a series of concept, working prototypes which will be used to disseminate the ideas in roadshows across the UK / thereby gaining more insight into people's reactions to this. The second stream of activity will focus on providing the underlying technology to support such a system.During the course of the project we will liaise with the international telemedicine community to ensure that this research is informed by the latest developments in the wider community. We have also planned early meetings with Connecting for Health to determine the way in which this project (or follow on projects) will integrate with Connecting for Health. Local community groups such as Age Concern have already offered access to their members, as have hospitals in London, Coventry and Warwickshire. In terms of technological development and innovation we will investigate a number of strategic alliances with technology and service providers.