The patient perspective of our Shared Care Record is vitally important to how we understand the benefits it presents. At the recent Shared Care Record Summit, we learned how technology is improving the way we support the wider healthcare system, and tapping into patient experience is vital in underpinning this understanding.

At the Summit, attendees heard a moving keynote speech from patient Emma Robertson. Emma joined the stage and declared herself as a patient, sharing her own personal experience of how Shared Care Record has revolutionised her experience of healthcare. As a patient undergoing treatment for secondary metastatic breast cancer, Emma has spent many years in and out of healthcare settings. She is extremely well placed to speak on behalf of the patient experience when your personal information must inform every step of care.

She spoke of how being able to see her own medical records allowed her to step in during her own treatment and have her voice heard when it mattered most. She told the Summit, “With easy access to the right information patients can become an active part of their own safeguarding checklists”.

For Emma her personal details were particularly key to her needs. Details including that her home was a narrowboat. This key piece of information on Emma would relate to so much of her care, for example, having her medical team understand this so they could prepare for all eventualities. Should the need arise, it would not be possible to transport an oxygen tank onto and operate it on a narrow boat. As a patient, Emma could not be expected to raise this key point with every medical healthcare professional she met.

By pulling all information about our patients into one accessible area ensures a holistic approach to how patients area cared for at every touchpoint. Interweave and the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record partners with a number of Integrated Care Systems UK-wide, allowing it to be accessed by a diverse range of organisations from NHS Trusts, Local Authorities, Social Care, Ambulance Services and GP practices.

To watch Emma’s key note speech visit the YouTube channel here.