The Greater Manchester Care Record has been used in a personalised cholesterol medication study to see if it could benefit patients and save the NHS money.
The study identified 18,904 people across 170 GP practices across Greater Manchester who would benefit from reducing their cholesterol using novel therapies.
Using a combination of standard statin treatments, lifestyle changes and novel therapies as personalised medicine, the study says the approach prevented 80 heart attacks and strokes during a five-year period. As well as benefiting the patients this saved the NHS £2 million in direct costs.
Central to identifying the patients was the use of shared care records. The Greater Manchester Care Record uses shared care record technology from vendor Graphnet.
Neighbouring Wirral Community Interest Company has used the same shared care records technology to provide personalised diabetes treatment.
The study provides insight to public health organisations into the savings that personalised care could provide. Graphnet claimed that personalised cholesterol medication could prevent 370 heart attacks and strokes a year, leading to a saving of £9 million for the NHS.
