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News | | Thames Valley LHCR Partnership takes significant step forward towards improving care through technology

Thames Valley LHCR Partnership takes significant step forward towards improving care through technology

The Thames Valley Health and Care Records Partnership (TVS LHCR) has signed a contract with the System C & Graphnet Care Alliance to provide a new region-wide shared record and population health system for 3.8m people. The contract will be for a duration of seven years.

Graphnet will work with the TVS LHCR to put in place a range of software and services to enable the safe and secure sharing of an individual’s health and care information as they move between different parts of the NHS and social care within the Thames Valley and Surrey. It will also enable an individual’s record to be shared for specific care purposes if they need treatment further afield.

Underpinning the whole solution will be Graphnet’s CareCentric shared record platform. This will use national interoperability standards to integrate data from existing local record systems, such as Cerner in Oxfordshire and Graphnet’s CareCentric in Buckinghamshire, and from other accredited third party solutions.

The aim of the system is to drive improvements in direct care. As well as providing up to date information to care professionals, people with access to a Personal Health Recordwill be able to access their records from across the TVS footprint, and use digital services and apps that directly support them to manage their own health and wellbeing.

Graphnet will also supply analytics and advanced population health management tools in support of direct care – helping devise new, improved pathways for the treatment of people with diabetes, cancer, and mental health illness for example.

These population health solutions will also help analyse and understand the needs of the local population as a whole, with specific actions identified to improve clinical outcomes.

The TVS LHCR was formed in the late summer of last year, after being awarded £7.5 million funding as one of NHS England’s first five LHCRE projects.

The partnership is not a standalone organisation. It is a working agreement that enables people and health and care organisations, such as NHS hospitals, GPs, local councils, patients and staff to come together to discuss and identify what matters to them so that the right solutions are in place by 2020.

Fiona Edwards, chair of the TVS LHCR programme board and leader of the Frimley Integrated Care System, said:

“The procurement is a significant step forward in achieving our ambition to use the potential of digital technology to make real improvements to the way people are cared for and are able to look after their own health.

“We wanted to find a technology partner who shared our vision and put a number of suppliers through a very rigorous process to find the right people who shared our ambition and desire to work in partnership and collaborate.”

Brian Waters, chief executive of Graphnet, commented:

“The System C & Graphnet Care Alliance has been working hard on delivering shared records since Graphnet’s first major deployment over 15 years ago and we now manage records for 13m people. The scope of this contract puts record sharing at the centre of plans to transform care right across Thames Valley and Surrey – it includes a very wide range of datasets, advanced data normalisation, FHIR integration, full population health and a platform for PHR solutions. We are delighted to be partnering with the TVS LHCR on this programme.”