Electronic patient records supplier, TPP, enables widespread use of About Me in SystmOne

TPP, one of the world’s leading suppliers of healthcare technology, today announces it has updated its core product, SystmOne, to enable implementation of the PRSB’s About Me standard.

The ‘About Me’ standard captures information that is important to a person and that they want to be shared with professionals in health and social care. This might include how best to communicate with the person, how to help them feel at ease or details about how they prefer to take their medication.

In order to facilitate its use with health and care professionals, TPP have released local SystmOne codes, allowing primary care teams to record information in a consistent manner. The codes mean that the free text captured within an About Me record is now searchable, can be transferred to shared care records and can be restructured to printable documents held by the patient. Moreover, this represents a critical step forward in delivering interoperability in health and care.

The update means more than 265,000 NHS users across all health and social settings will benefit from the opportunity to capture details of what’s important and what matters to them, allowing for more personalised care.

Commenting on this development, Dr. John Parry, Clinical Director at TPP, said: “The release of codes to support About Me implementation represents a significant step forward in our drive to promote patient-held records as a means for people to record their preferences, allowing details to be recorded via SystmOne and shared between care providers.”

“The About Me standard allows information to be stored consistently in systems, and that consistency allows for reuse within and between systems. It encourages the patient voice to be heard and acted upon. This is essential for safety, improved patient experiences and better outcomes.”

The news comes as the PRSB launches the #CareAboutMe campaign; a year-long drive to raise awareness of the About Me standard across health and social care, encouraging providers and suppliers to implement the standard within systems and the general public to create their own profiles wherever possible.

PRSB CEO, Lorraine Foley, said: “Encouraging use of the About Me standard in systems and learning more about how and where our standards are enabling better care are important goals in our #CareAboutMe campaign. TPP’s decision to release codes for the standard just as we get our campaign underway is fantastic, and we encourage other suppliers and health and care providers to work with us to build momentum for widespread use of the standard and the improvements in care that will deliver.”

The philosophy of TPP is to join up healthcare through shared electronic health records, improve access to clinical data and empower patients to play an active part in their own care. SystmOne is a clinical system which supports TPP’s vision of a ‘one patient, one record’ model of healthcare.