Health & Social Care NI (HSCNI) is working on a Patient Portal to support people with dementia.
It is planning to launch a pilot version in August involving up to 100 people to establish a proof of concept with a view to rolling it out across Northern Ireland in the longer term.
The organisation is working on the project with Orion Health, which is involved in ongoing work to deliver the Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record system.
The portal is being developed through an iterative approach to establish protocols such as how to deliver laboratory results to patients.
It will involve providing a large number of data entry points and access to legacy systems as many people living with dementia need a wide range of specialist health services.
The portal will initially include four main functions: information on hospital appointments; a facility for clinicians, patients and nominated care representatives to share files; a health library of standard medical documentation, photos and videos; and a ‘circle of care’, which will allow nominated representatives to have secure access to relevant information on a patient’s condition.
Further functions
More functions will be added in the future, including records of medication, treatment received, viewing of authorised clinical documents, access to laboratory results and goal setting.
“The Patient Portal marks an important milestone for the health service in Northern Ireland and this Pathfinder project will allow specific protocols to be established with the aim of enabling much better communication between patients, their carers and clinicians,” commented Eddie Ritson, programme director, Centre for Connected Health and Social Care.
“Building upon the already successful Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record platform, the Patient Portal will help to put patients at the centre of care, encourage greater self-care and help in the co-ordination of service delivery.”
Pictured (from left to right): Gary Birks, general manager UK & Ireland for Orion Health, Eddie Ritson, programme director, Centre for Connected Health and Social Care and Stephen Beattie, eHealth Programme manager, Business Services Organisation.
