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INTRODUCTION

Welcome!

This site tries to do a number of things:

  1. To offer information and advice about patients accessing their own electronic health records. The Records Access Collaborative has a world-wide network.
  2. To offer an evidence-base on record access either through papers here or links to other sites
  3. To offer a place for discussion and problem-solving for doctors, patients and staff of those practices involved in the EMIS/PAERS record access rollout. We hope that practices can learn from each other and from those with most experience. This should make the learning from record access as efficient and widely disseminated as possible.

The RAC recognizes that record access is widely welcomed by patients and the public. However, some clinicians, in the UK at least, have concerns about starting record access. The RAC wants to support the early roll out in any country. We have therefore structured the site to enable support to be a major feature.

There are a number of levels accessible to different groups. We want to make it possible for clinicians, for instance, to have conversations about record access that are not open to all. There may be clinical or primary care admin issues that are best dealt with within that group. We expect this to be small part of the conversation.

You can therefore register as:

  • Clinician – will have access to all levels
  • Admin staff – will have access to admin and public
  • Public – will have access to this level only

Within each section, you will be able to comment on a range of topics

  • Problems and solutions thrown up by record access
  • Benefits of record access
  • Questions to be solved

The record access collaborative is being developed as a service to the public, patients, the NHS and industry. The aim is to bring together those who have an interest in seeing record access more widely available and maximising benefits that flow from it.

The NHS has made a clear statement of principle that patients should be able to access their records, subject to legal safety restrictions . There is good evidence of substantial benefits for patients .

THE AIM OF THE COLLABORATIVE

  • to raise awareness of record access (RA) nationally and internationally
  • to make RA as useful to patients and health care professionals as possible by linking data to facilitate understanding and empower patients to share decisions if they want to.
  • to increase the take-up of RA by patients and practices, with possible extension to other healthcare organizations such as outpatient departments and pharmacies
  • to support the development of national standards for RA.

    DEVELOPING AND SUPPORTING THE ACCESS COLLABORATIVE

    The collaborative is intended to be a network of organisations and individuals who are interested and supportive of RA. This will include NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH) in England, private companies, common interest companies, groups such as the NHS Alliance and Patient Information Forum, and individuals. It will also include patients and patients’ groups.