Major digital health conference comes to Leeds

Leading health think tank The King’s Fund and Leeds Health and Wellbeing Board have teamed up to gather health data experts together in the city to share best practice and look at the best ways for information technology to support health and care.

Following on from a successful conference in 2016, the event will focus on sharing health and care records and designing IT systems around local population needs. It will take place on Wednesday 13th December 2017 at Horizon Leeds.

Councillor Rebecca Charlwood, Chair of Leeds Health and Wellbeing Board, will open the conference. She said:

“It is great that we’re welcoming such a significant conference to Leeds for the second consecutive year. It is an excellent opportunity for important collaboration and collective learning right here in West Yorkshire. This event will offer real opportunities and benefits for health and care staff in our region, leading to better wellbeing for people from Leeds.

“It is increasingly clear that being able to share health and care records digitally is essential to offering better, more co-ordinated care for local populations. However, we know delivering these benefits requires having the appropriate technology, having the right checks and balances in place and having an environment which supports making progress on this.

“The different models this conference explores have been developed over recent years and provide the opportunity to learn how local areas are overcoming these challenges.”

Other speakers will include Will Smart, Chief Information Officer, NHS England, Professor Maureen Baker, Chair, Professional Record Standards Body, and Martin Severs, Medical Director and Caldicott Guardian, NHS Digital.

Harry Evans, researcher at The King’s Fund, said:

“Effectively and securely sharing care records is crucial to the future of health and care provision. As local health and care systems develop new models of care that respond to patients and service user needs, it is essential to develop IT systems that can share detailed digital patient record accessibly with everyone involved in a patient’s care. This is whether they are working in primary, community, secondary, or social care. The event will provide an opportunity to learn from these examples of best practice and explore the issues of implementing it in your local area.”

Key figures from Yorkshire will deliver a session sharing how they have embedded technology in health and social care through the Leeds Care Record, including Geoff Hall, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Dylan Roberts, Chief Digital and Information Officer for Leeds.

More details about the event and the full programme can be found here: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/events/sharing-health-and-care-records

More information about Leeds Care Record is available here: https://www.leedscarerecord.org/