Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, covering four acute trusts, has contracted Patients Know Best for a digital patient portal to March 2027.
The programme will span York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust.
With an estimated value of £669,927, the contract is awarded under NHS SBS’s Technology Enabled Care Services 2 framework.
The news comes following Patients Know Best’s announcement that it had secured a £6 million loan to help scale its digital personal health record platform and expand internationally, at that time sharing that its platform is currently in use across 25 percent of UK hospitals.
Wider trend: Patient portals, engagement, and communication tech
For a recent HTN Now panel discussion on advancing patient engagement with communication tech and patient portals, we were joined by experts including Jothi Vasan-O’Leary, medical information officer and outpatient clinical lead (GIRFT) at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton; Daniel Parkinson, digital IT project manager at Leeds Teaching Hospitals; Sally Mole, senior digital programme manager – digital portfolio delivery team at The Dudley Group; and Emma Stratful, chief operating officer at OX.DH. Our panellists, discussed adoption, engagement, the use of AI and automation technologies, functionality and the future role of patient portals and communication tech in tackling NHS challenges.
Back in July of last year, NHS England released guidance highlighting principles around the automation of test result release in patient engagement portals, along with requirements around portal functionality. As per the principles, all test results should be released to an individual via digital means when they have signed up to a patient engagement portal or the NHS App, and when a test is requested, conversation should include how and when the patient can expect to be notified of the result.
The HTN AI and Data Awards category of “Best use of AI for promotion, communication and prevention” saw entries from providers utilising tech and data in a range of innovative ways to support patients and enhance workflows or productivity, including in shifting to proactive care, promoting health literacy, empowering patients, and more.
