UK Kidney Association signs re-platform deal with Patients Know Best

The UK Kidney Association (UKKA) has signed a five-year deal with Patients Know Best (PKB) to re-platform their national patient-facing system, PatientView.

The system will become a PKB personal health records platform and will improve the existing security and functionality of the current system, which was one of the first patient portals in the UK.

It will offer patients and their professional teams, a number of features including increased security, care planning team-based messaging and a platform where data on wearables and monitoring devices can be used to support clinical transformation.

Ron Cullen, CEO of the UK Kidney Association, said: “The transition from PatientView to the Patients Know Best (PKB) personal health records system commenced at the end of October, and we now have 12 kidney units successfully linked and sending patients their data.

“Working with PKB, we aim to provide a secure environment in which patients can access their data and take control of how their information is shared, and with whom.

“We are looking forward to the positive changes that this partnership brings and to offering people with kidney disease and our kidney communities with enhanced platforms and portals to streamline their care.”

In order to facilitate the switch, UK Renal Registry (UKRR) IT staff have developed a data flow that will send the current PatientView data to PKB in the required format. There will be no additional financial cost to trusts for the routing of the data flow to PKB.

Dr Mohammed Al-Ubaydli, chief executive and founder of Patients Know Best, added: “The Renal Registry has always been a pioneer – renal clinics were the first to give patients their data and it is now the largest registry in Europe.

“The UKKA is pioneering this model so patients can also work in collaboration with patient charities, health and care providers, and disease registries to improve care and advance research.

“One of the real benefits to this partnership is that patients will be able to access more data related to their wider health not just in relation to their renal condition and expand on the tools renal clinical teams can use with their patients to help manage their kidney conditions.

“It’s an honour to extend the original work of the UKKA to cover non-renal and non-hospital data via the PKB platform.”

As well as the re-platform deal with the UKKA, Patients Know Best also went live with an online portal with North Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust earlier in 2021.