Shared digital records should be the basis of modern medicine

Agreement: 
I Agree
Body: 

Dear Editor

I read with interest the editorial, and I hope it is a sign that a well-overdue change is about to happen. Missed opportunities have occurred in the past, like:
• Implementation of the summary care records (SCR) in 2010. Unfortunately, it was eventually designed so that only data from general practice would populate them.
• Introduction of Electronic Palliative Care Coordination Systems (EPaCCS) around 2010-11. Regrettably, software limitations prevent them from fully providing the information needed at all organisations caring for end-of-life patients.

A shared digital medication record (SDMR) could be a “single version of the truth” as pointed out by the authors, and it is in prescriptions one of the few places where it can only be achieved. In medicine we know there is often not one truth, but more likely many opinions on diagnoses and best management.

We should aim to have any item of intangible truth, whether a prescription or a procedure carried out, entered in a coded format by the person who prescribed or carried it out. It is the only way that at least some basic information is shared among all the thousands of organisations and hundreds of clinical software that are behind the one NHS. Expecting others to enter the information should not be the rule. To start with, there will be an entry delay, secondly, there could be a misinterpretation of the entry, or even worse, no entry made at all. If we are to improve the care of our patients, we have to share the responsibility of entering coded data with our actions, and obviously to make it in a way that is straight away available to any colleague that may need that piece of information.

This could be the stepping stone for more shared digital records, which should be the basis of modern medicine

No competing Interests: 
Yes
The following competing Interests: 
Electronic Publication Date: 
Sunday, January 29, 2023 – 15:34
Workflow State: 
Released
Full Title: 

Shared digital records should be the basis of modern medicine

Check this box if you would like your letter to appear anonymously:: 
Last Name: 
Millares Martin
First name and middle initial: 
Pablo
Address: 
Wortley Beck Health Centre, Wortley Ring Rd, Leeds.
Occupation: 
GP
Affiliation: 
Whitehall Surgery
BMJ: Additional Article Info: 
Rapid response

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