In an ideal world, every doctor you see would know all they needed to know about you. 

Sadly this cannot be the case as that which is not written down cannot easily be shared but some of your information can be drawn together to make a useful record to improve your care.

Health One brings together information about you from several sources that do not normally allow information sharing to create a summary of your medical care that authorised users may access to provide you with care.

Information from your GP is combined with hospital, laboratory and pharmacy data to provide a snapshot of your health which can be very useful if you see a doctor you do not normally visit.  The system provides:

• A list of medications that your GP has prescribed
• A list of medications that your pharmacy has dispensed
• Some measurements - Weight and Blood Pressure.
• A list of medical conditions with which you have been diagnosed.
• Allergies to medication.
• Test results - laboratory and x-rays.
• Access to hospital discharge letters, clinic notes, ECGs and other electronic documents.
• A list of future appointments at the hospital.
• Your name, address,contact details and the name of your GP.

Consultation notes - what your GP actually writes in your records - are NOT shared.

All of this data is provided under the terms of 'Access Deeds' that define what it may be used for.  The envisiaged uses include providing better care in an emergency, making care more seamless during casual or out of hours consultations and to improve the patient experience by reducing paperwork.

This is quite a lot of information that is held about you and it is done on an 'opt-out' rather than 'opt-in basis' - if you don't ask for it to be switched off, this data collection just goes ahead so we have had to be very careful to protect the information with world-leading information security.

• Users only have access to information relevant to their role in your care.  Receptionists can see when your next hospital appointment is, for instance, but almost nothing else.  Pharmacists are allowed your list of medications but not your medical diagnoses.  Doctors can see everything.  A large committee of doctors oversees the access matrix that grants people access to your information.
• The data is stored securely.  Information from general practice is stored only on servers under the control of Pegasus Health.  Other users may view the data but it is never stored in their systems.
• Access to the data is recorded.  Computers identify every single data read event and analyse it in real time to make sure that the use of your information is justified.  If not, the user is asked to explain why they accessed your information and may, if it is found to be inappropriate, be subject to censure or to proceedings with their professional body.
• Data is transmitted securely - we use certificates to ensure that the information can only be accessed from authorised computers and that it is encrypted in transmission.

Overall, we feel that the processes that have informed the creation of Health One and the processes that continue to protect your data are robust.  The system saves a lot of time accessing information that is hard to obtain reliably in other ways and certainly leads to better and more informed consultations for new and casual patients at the practice.

We strongly recommend that all our patients remain part of Health One but if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss them.  If you prefer, you can always opt out of information sharing by calling 0800 TESTSAFE.

Note that this article has been updated to use the name Health One which has replaced the old term eSCRV (electronic Shared Care Record View)

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