What do NHS reforms mean for electronic patient records?

The modernisation of the NHS is going to be no easy task, especially "unleashing an information revolution", as put forward by the health secretary last year.

This patient-centric approach aims to do away with the postcode lottery in levels of care around the UK and instead give patients access to a wealth of information to choose which hospital they want to be treated at. This is then hoped to "drive up standards in the NHS."

Electronic patient records (EPRs) have been around for a while but still have a long way to go before they're fully available to all. A lot needs to be done to determine if and how all records will be digitised, deciding how this data will be shared between departments and other healthcare institutions and, lastly, the patients themselves.

The foundation of all of this is going to be a strong network and it will be channel partners that can focus and understand the specific needs of their local NHS organisation that will be able to support them in delivering EPRs in the most efficient and cost-effective way. Could healthy competition between local channel partners help improve the health of the nation?

Melvyn Wray is senior vice president of product marketing at Allied Telesis