The Faculty of Clinical Informatics (FCI) have now published a draft version of their Standards and Interoperability Strategy having been commissioned by the Transformation Directorate at NHS England and NHS Improvement to aid with the consultation process.
The NHS Transformation Directorate aims to get colleagues from across NHS Digital, NHS England and NHS Improvement and the Department of Health and Social Care on the same wavelength and ultimately behind a common goal: drive innovation at scale in order to improve health and care for people and support staff.
The strategy entitled How Standards Will Support Interoperability intends to provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities, clarify definitions of key terms and outline the main proposed solutions.
It has set out a five point plan to drive adoption:
- Define a model care record
- Define the architectural approach
- Make it easier to implement standards
- Manage standards as a product
- Make it commercially attractive to develop standards-compliant software
The FCI themselves have said: “Data-driven technologies have so much potential for our health and care system, but we can only unlock this potential if we have the right technical infrastructure in place. Data is a shared asset, and as we break down the organisational silos that hold data, we must rebuild them on the foundations of a unified architecture, open standards and better interoperability, to enable the best use of this asset.”
They concluded: “The proposed strategy has been drafted in collaboration with stakeholders from across the health ecosystem. The NHS Transformation Directorate and its engagement partner, FCI are looking to gather feedback on the draft strategy from a wide range of voices who have an interest in digital health, including developers, clinicians, commissioners, patients and the public, to ensure it is robust, ambitious and attainable.”
Further details about the strategy are set to be published by the end of April, with virtual focus groups and online surveys expected in May, which will form part of the consultation process.
For access to the draft strategy, click here.
