US-UK sign healthcare IT MoU

NHS England and the Health and Social Care Information Centre will sign a healthcare IT memorandum of understanding with the US Department for Health and Social Services today.

The MoU focuses on sharing common values around healthcare informatics and making it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to get a foot in the door on both sides of the Atlantic.

At the Information Services Commissioning Group board meeting earlier this week, Tim Kelsey, NHS England’s director of patients and information, said the agreement would be signed today “to try and make access to both markets easier for SMEs.”

He added that he expected some substantive bilateral announcements to be made in June and said: “We hope we can announce some really exciting things for SMEs and patients in general."

The MoU says that potential future sharing activities include sharing quality indicators, and “identify alignments across existing UK and US repositories and topics with the potential for further collaboration and harmonisation, particularly in the area of longitudinal patient indicators.”

It also includes exploring ways to maximise the adoption of electronic patient records and working to remove barriers to innovations and discuss app regulations.

“Both domestic approaches are predicated on the increased availability and cultural willingness to make use of quality health data and health information technology tools by clinicians and to patients,” says the MoU.

“The aims and scope of the work intend to reflect prior agreements and discussions on topics held at bilateral summit meetings, and to recognise the need to economise on innovation and best practices.”

EHI reported last summer that the UK and the US were working towards common standards for technology services. The MoU is a result of several meetings between the parties, and will last for two years.

The MoU will also explore possibilities and collaboration “around open data and data transparency of secondary stores; examine potential areas for mutual learning and harmonisation concepts in supporting patients to access and use their health data in managing their care,” and accelerate the development of standards and interoperability.

“A number of public and private interoperability and architecture initiatives are also underway across the UK and US that may also serve as resources and drivers for success including those of existing standard setting organisations,” it says.