We are pleased to share this post from Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health in England, and one of the keynote speakers at this year’s Health Datapalooza in DC in June. Below, he shares his thoughts on the importance of Health Data for patients and quality of care worldwide.
As Secretary of State for Health in England, I am determined to transform the way that our National Health Service uses its wealth of untapped data to improve the quality of care, to drive down costs and to give patients control over their own care.
Quite simply, better information makes for better results. Take cardiac surgery. 7 or 8 years ago, survival rates in England were below the European average. Then surgeons took the courageous decision to publish the survival rates of every individual surgeon in the country. That decision changed everything. Nobody wants to be at the bottom of the list. The very fact the information was out there made people up their game. The result? England is now one of the safest places in Europe for heart surgery.
If it can work for heart surgery it can work for others too. So we have just begun to publish the survival rates of every single surgeon across 10 surgical specialities. A relatively quick, cheap and incredibly effective way of improving standards.
Data also has the power to control costs. When I spoke at Health Datapolooza IV in June, it was obvious that this is just as high a priority for US healthcare. As Secretary Sibelius said, better data will show up how hospitals charge different prices for the same procedures, driving up affordability and improving access to treatments.
I am also excited about the potential of putting this information in the hands of patients. In England, patients can already choose which hospital they want to treat them. But without clear, high quality data, that choice is meaningless. With that information however, competition will drive innovation throughout the system.
It’s because of this potential for patients that I’m passionate about open data. But for data to be open, it has to be electronic. Paper records are unwieldy, can only ever be in one place at a time and are easily lost. I was impressed when I heard at Health Datapolooza that up to 80 percent of US hospitals already use electronic health records.
Currently, hospitals in England lag behind that figure, but there are exceptions that show what is possible. Like University Hospitals Birmingham, which offers its patients full online access to their medical records. It also has a new e-prescribing system which in just a year has already saved as many as 100 lives by drastically reducing prescribing errors.
I have challenged the rest of the NHS to catch up and go paperless by 2018. And if some can do it, all can do it, and every patient will benefit.
I have also started a $400 million technology fund, specifically to help doctors and nurses go paperless and make the NHS safer, better and more convenient for everybody.
Health data has the potential to transform the way we care for people with long term conditions like dementia and diabetes, to drive up survival rates for killer diseases like cancer and heart disease, and to give doctors and nurses the time and the information they need to always give their patients the best care possible.
In America I saw some brilliant examples of how open data has led directly to better care for patients. I want the same – and more – for England.