App update enables patients in England to sync GP and hospital information
Patients in England can now bring NHS medical records into their Google Health app through Patients Know Best (PKB), extending access to their health information alongside everyday fitness and wellbeing tracking.
The connection forms part of Google Health’s version 5.12 update, which has begun a phased rollout on Android and iOS. Google says the integration enables users to sync records from many NHS GP practices and a growing number of NHS hospitals and secondary care organisations through its partnership with PKB.
For PKB, the integration adds another route through which patients can use the information held in their personal health record. Its platform brings together data from health and social care providers with information patients add themselves, allowing them to access and share records across organisational boundaries. Patients can choose to share all or selected parts of their record with family members, carers and healthcare professionals.
To enable the Google Health connection, users select their profile icon, open the medical records section and choose “NHS Records (England) via Patients Know Best” as their provider before allowing synchronisation. The feature works with records available through participating services in England rather than universal access to every NHS record.
The development builds on PKB’s existing work to bring primary and secondary care information into a single patient record. Patients with an NHS GP in England can choose to copy GP information into PKB using their NHS login in addition to the records supplied by hospitals and mental health services.
PKB lists personal details, diagnoses, current and past prescribed medicines, GP appointments and immunisations among the information initially available through its GP connection. Once patients consent, the platform retrieves the latest available GP data each time they log in.
PKB also provides access through its website. Depending on the services connected to their record, patients can view test results, appointment information, letters and discharge summaries, as well as exchange messages with their care teams.
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