Earlier this week, the Ripple team had the pleasure of attending the NHS England, Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) and the Local Government Association (LGA) led the #Interop workshop in London. This high demand event (there was a waiting list!) brought together Integration Pioneer, Vanguard and Prime Minister Challenge Fund sites to discuss “Taking Forward Personalised Health and Care 2020”.
Packed joint interop day – Pioneers-PMCF-Vanguard taking forward HC2020. #NHSinterop @Beverley_Bryant @docmdmartin pic.twitter.com/qGhNqh16FR
— indi singh (@mr_indisingh) June 3, 2015
Not only was it great to see the various sites in the same room keen to collaborate, but there was a noted change in approach for the event; with a focus from the centre on what ‘the offer’ was to support interoperability and Integrated Digital Care Records (IDCR)… and by when.
We had some great speakers on the day, discussing the key objectives of the National Information Board, “what good looks like” and blocker/accelerators to interoperability to name but a few. The particular highlight for me though was to understand from key speakers, the work a towards IDCRs at a local level – both starting and well underway .
Perhaps it was because the event brought the various sites together, but there were numerous offers from the speakers to share the work they have done openly, whether this be information sharing agreements, Role Based Access Controls or detailed benefits analysis. It brought a real collaborative air to the room. Given that many of the sites are looking to tackle similar initiatives towards the development of IDCRs, this of course makes utter sense but it is events like these (and the follow up) that start the conversation and help foster co-operation and joined up thinking.
@Andy_Kinnear shares 5 great tips to integrate health & social care at #NHSInterop event. #ConnectedCare @RippleOSI pic.twitter.com/6zIOF3Mg6g
— Tony Shannon (@frectally) June 3, 2015
A promising theme/commitment that ran through the whole day from many, if not all, was that of Open, whether Open Standards or Open Source or just plain openness in the way we work together. When looking at IDCR’s, it’s a real shift from the perhaps previous norm of relying on vendors to solve the problem.
I was counting how many times the speakers at #NHSinterop say "open" but lost count somewhere in 3 figures
— Ewan Davis (@WoodcoteEwan) June 3, 2015
This Open theme culminated in our very own Dr Tony Shannon launching the Ripple Open Source Initiative, a community based approach toward an IDCR. In his presentation, Tony discussed the journey from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s PPM+, to the city wide IDCR initiative known ‘aptly’ as Leeds Care Record and how delivering the Open Source approach of Ripple will help England and beyond in the move towards integrated health and social care.
At @NHSEngland @LGAcomms #NHSinterop event to launch @RippleOSI – #collaborate #innovate #open health & social care integration
— Tony Shannon (@frectally) June 3, 2015
In case you missed his presentation, we’ve posted it on slideshare for you to take a look but there appeared to be real appetite and support for what we’re doing. Also if you’d like to understand a bit more about Ripple, please take a look at our Ripple explainer video.
As with the offer from the centre; the offer from the ‘bottom up’ local level of Ripple will only succeed if the community, collaborate, innovate and adopt this open approach. So who’s in?!
Thanks to NHS England, HSCIC and the LGA for hosting such a good event, let’s hope there’s more to come!
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://rippleosi.org/interopworkshop/