News story

Taking forward proposals for digital health and care

Health and care leaders to start collaborative programme to produce proposals for digital health and care priorities.

NIB tree

The priorities were agreed by the government and the National Information Board in ‘Personalised Health and Care 2020: A Framework for Action’.

The leaders will agree the work of a number of work streams at the board meeting of the National Information Board on 4 March 2015. The work streams are:

  • providing patients and the public with digital access to health and care information and transactions

  • providing citizens with access to an endorsed set of NHS and social care apps

  • setting the commissioning and regulatory roadmap for implementation of digital data standards by 2018/19

  • roadmap for comprehensive data on outcomes and value of service now – ensuring the business intelligence requirements of health and care are met now

  • making the quality of care transparent: roadmap for publication of comparative information

  • build and sustain public trust: deliver roadmap to consent based information sharing and assurance of safeguards

  • bring forward life-saving treatments and support innovation and growth

  • support care professionals to make the best use of data and technology

  • assure best value for taxpayers and open up existing infrastructure

  • enabling information standards (to be published later)

Tim Kelsey, Chair of the National Information Board and National Information Director, said:

It is great that there has been such a positive response to the Framework for Action and there is growing momentum to take the commitments forward and produce the roadmaps on how to transform digital health and care. We are prioritising working in collaboration with clinical, patient and public leaders, local health and care organisations, researchers and industry.

Will Cavendish, Informatics Accountable Officer, Department of Health, said:

The National Information Board for the first time agreed the strategic priorities for data and technology in health and care and now this detailed work on implementation is being taken forward with the same shared leadership. We need to work together to improve health and care for patients, carers, service users and citizens.

The work streams are co-chaired by leaders of national health and care organisations and taken forward by members of the National Information Board which spans public health, clinical science, social care and local government.

There will be close involvement of users - patients, carers, citizens, industry, NHS, local government, researchers. Each group is putting in place specific ways to engage users and to co-design the proposals. Details are included in their terms of reference which will be published shortly.

The majority of roadmaps will be produced between March and June 2015 - see timeline.

Published 4 March 2015