News

We are profiling some of the innovators we’ve been working with who have developed tried and tested solutions to support healthcare providers in our region with their response to COVID-19.

In our first post, we focused on DrDoctor. In this post, we’re focusing on Patients Know Best, (PKB), the UK’s most used personal health record and the world’s first patient-controlled health records system.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS trusts have expanded their use of the system to remotely manage and share information with patients. Patients have been invited to mass register for the service at an unprecedented level, enabling more effective population health management through multidisciplinary care planning, symptom tracking and monitoring, COVID-19 related research, video consultations and access to health data including laboratory results.

Mohammad’s story

As a patient with a rare disease himself, Chief Executive, Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, founded the company in 2008. For years Mohammad had found himself repeatedly explaining his condition to the healthcare practitioners he saw. He realised they were relying on him as the ‘expert’ to provide accurate information – both about his condition and any recent episodes. However, this was increasingly difficult to sustain without access to his personal health information, held by multiple institutions that supported him.

Wanting patients to drive their own health destinies, Mohammad set out to advocate access to the information and tools patients need to safely manage and co-ordinate their care. Health and care organisations quickly saw the value of this service for their NHS patients – and over 12 years later, Patients Know Best is contracted to deliver PHRs for more than 10 million people across the UK.

The PKB system is also being used across the Yorkshire and Humber region in the Humber, Coast and Vale ICS (in Hull and York Teaching Hospitals) and in the West Yorkshire and Harrogate ICS (in Leeds and Mid Yorkshire Hospitals).

The PKB online platform brings together patient data from all settings including health, social care, mental health, community services and the patient’s own data, into one secure record. Patients can access and share everything including appointment letters, test results and multidisciplinary care plans, empowering them to play an active role in their health and wellbeing.

Vice President of Sales, Sally Rennison, said: “We’re pleased that PKB has been able to bridge the gap in data and communication for our customers. Services have been able to interact with patients remotely and patients are better equipped to effectively self-manage their condition from home.”

“It has also allowed patients that are admitted to hospital to communicate with loved ones at what is a very unsettling time for many.”

 Transferrable services

The PKB platform is deployed in different ways across the health sector to meet the varying needs of organisations and services.

The Dermatology Service in Swansea Bay University Health Board is using PKB to help patients with severe dermatological conditions (i.e. psoriasis). Here, medication reviews are dependent on regular blood tests but by sharing test results and other important information, patients can self-manage their condition, while stable patients can be remotely monitored and managed. As a result, patients who would routinely have four face-to-face appointments, now only have one. This has created much-needed capacity for patients who need to be seen in person, whilst providing safe and effective remote support for patients who are able to self-manage their condition from home.

Partnerships and integrations

Patients Know best is fully integrated with other services and devices, to help meet the individual needs of patient cohorts. In one application, patients and healthcare providers can remotely monitor vitals with Current Health, consult online with Attend Anywhere, or plug in any of 100 devices to support health and wellness outcomes for patients.

NHS App Integration 

In some parts of the country, such as Nottinghamshire, patients are using PKB’s national integration with the NHS App and Login to access their PKB record inside the NHS App interface. Here, single sign-on and nationally verified credentials are making it easier for patients to access all their NHS information and services in one application. Jayne Birch-Jones, the first patient to register for her record at Mansfield Surgery, said: “I’m under the care of physio for lower back problems and I can now share my care plan and pain scores with my GP.”

To learn more about Patients Know Best visit www.patientsknowbest.com.

Our work with Patients Know Best

The Patient Knows Best platform was implemented in Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Autumn 2019, to enable patients to have a view of their health record in one place. The Yorkshire & Humber AHSN has supported PKB in raising awareness of their services across the wider Humber, Cost and Vale STP when they were invited to present a case study of the implementation at Hull at a regional outpatient transformation event.

PKB forms a core element of our ‘menu’ of solutions to support outpatient transformation and patient record sharing, and they have been introduced to a number of trusts across the Yorkshire and Humber region who have need which PKB could assist with.

Sophie Bates, Programme Manager at the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN said: ‘’Patients Know Best is a great innovative platform that frees up resources and empowers patients to take an active role in their own care. As an AHSN, we are always looking to support companies with digital solutions to make health and care in our region even better.’’