Orion health will deliver a Patient Portal with an initial focus on people living with dementia across Northern Ireland.
The project, due to go live in August 2018, with an initial pilot of up to 100 people living with dementia, will establish the “Proof of Concept” which once successfully proven will see the opportunity for a ground-breaking Patient Portal.
Gary Birks, General Manager UK & Ireland for Orion Health “We are delighted to be working on the Patient Portal Pathfinder project which builds upon our continued work to deliver and develop the Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record system. The Patient Portal will build upon this ground-breaking information platform and will see the Pathfinder Project deliver real benefits in the care provided to people living with dementia and their carers whilst improving efficiencies for the Health Service.”
Stephen Beattie, eHealth Programme Manager, Business Services Organisation “The Patient Portal is possible due to its ability to access the award-winning Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record (NIECR) platform which has been in operation for over five years and provides health and care professionals with a single view of a patient’s health record. It will also provide patients with access to view relevant information regarding their healthcare in a digital format at a time convenient to them and in a consumable format.”
The Pathfinder Project will focus on dementia care in the first instance in order to better understand user requirements in such a complex and diverse area of healthcare. The iterative approach being adopted to the development of the Patient Portal will help to establish important protocols, such as how to deliver laboratory results to patients, which can then be replicated if the Patient Portal is rolled out more widely across health and social care.
When the Patient Portal launches in August it will provide people living with dementia with four initial areas of functionality:
Appointments – will enable hospital appointments to be viewed online which can be shared with other carers within a patient’s Circle of Care. This functionality will be especially important for people living with dementia who may at times be confused or forget about hospital appointments.
Shared Files – the Shared Files screen will allow clinicians, patients and their nominated care representatives to share files, such as documents, images and videos with one another within a patient’s care record.
Health Library – will provide clinicians with the ability to publish standard medical documentation, photos and videos into the Patient Portal. Clinicians then grant access to the relevant library content that is tailored specifically to the patient’s condition and care requirements. This provides the patient and their circle of care with access to highly relevant information that is reliable and trusted.
Circle of Care – one of the most innovative aspects of the Patient Portal will be the potential to identify a patient’s Circle of Care. This will allow nominated representatives, such as family members or other carers to have secure access to relevant information about the patient’s condition and the management of that condition.
