National Health Service to Map DNA of Up to 100,000 Patients

Effort to focus on cancer in hopes of accelerating diagnosis, improving treatment, and sparking innovation.

 

SHERYL P. DENKER

The Burrill Report

“Understanding and harnessing genetic information offers huge potential to target effective treatments and develop new treatments and cures.”

 

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service says it will map the DNA of up to 100,000 patients with cancer and other rare diseases over the next three to five years at a cost of $162 million (£100 million).

“Britain has often led the world in scientific breakthroughs and medical innovations, from the first CT scan and test-tube baby through to decoding DNA,” says Prime Minister David Cameron, “and Britain should become the first country to introduce genetic sequencing to its mainstream health service.”

The Department of Health’s NHS information strategy

The Department of Health’s new information strategy sets out plans to standardise data collection in NHS bodies, and to share and use it more effectively. Colin Marrs examines a trailblazer for the open data agenda

The Department of Health’s NHS information strategy, released last week, blazes a trail for other government departments by outlining the department’s approach to using open data as a way to improve service delivery. Although the strategy (see box) doesn’t envisage giving people new rights to access data currently kept out of the public domain, it does require NHS service providers to improve the way they collect, hold and release information – with the intention of improving patients’ experiences, providers’ performances, and the opportunities for private companies. The challenges facing those implementing the strategy will provide lessons for the rest of government, and help shape the future of the coalition’s open data initiative.

http://network.civilservicelive.com/pg/features/csw/read/658968/open-datas-healthy-life-signalsNHS Information Strategy: key points

• Create a single comprehensive online ‘portal’ – provided by government from 2013 – to present information on health, care, support services and public health;
• Move away from a national NHS IT system to locally-commissioned systems;
• Give all NHS patients secure online access to their personal GP records by 2015;
• Ensure that all GPs make available electronic booking and cancelling of appointments, and ordering of repeat prescriptions, by 2015;
• Introduce systems to ensure that medical information is recorded only once – at first contact with professional staff, and using nationally-defined data standards – and shared securely between healthcare providers.

If you are interested in this you might also be interested in the following sessions at Civil Service Live:

• Day 1: 15.10 - 16.10 - Transparency and Open Data
• Day 2: 15.20 - 15.50 - How digital channels transformed Health for Work