WIREDGOV

60 health and social care suppliers sign up to principles for change.

NHS England has yesterday announced its support for techUK's Interoperability Charter at the Health and Social Care Innovation Expo 2015. NHS England's Digital Technology team is encouraging suppliers to sign-up to the Charter's principles and urging service providers to refer to signatories when planning their interoperability journey. The Charter will also feature in a series of tools being developed by NHS England in conjunction with local and national organisations to support health and care professionals to make decisions on local information sharing solutions. These include the Interoperability Handbook which is a "how-to guide" and the Starter OBS to help local organisations procure interoperable solutions.

Beverley Bryant, Director of Digital Technology, NHS England recently welcomed the Charter in an interview about her priorities following the General Election.

60 suppliers have already committed to the industry Charter, which sets out five key principles for technology and information suppliers to commit to, to enable the change needed to deliver better integrated health and care. In return for the new principles of interoperability, techUK is asking the NHS and Local Government to guarantee that; nationally defined interoperability standards are based on internationally recognised standards and real-world requirements driven by business need; and when accreditation or compliance testing is deemed necessary that it is light-touch, proportionate, open to all and free.

Inderjit Singh, Head of Enterprise Architecture, NHS England said: "We support the Interoperability Charter and the need for suppliers to provide open interfaces within and across care settings, and therefore will be directing organisations starting to plan their blueprint for interoperability to the Charter for their supplier partners."

Natalie Bateman, Head of Health, Social Care and Local Government, techUK said: "The technology industry welcomes the new models of integrated care set out in Simon Stevens' Five Year Forward View, and we're committed to ensuring that technology does not pose a barrier to the integration of systems and improved sharing of data, as is demonstrated by the level of support we have for the Charter since launching a few weeks ago.

"The 60 companies that have signed up are leading the way in revolutionising how health and care is delivered."

In March, techUK launched welcomed the Charter to highlight the changes to interoperability standards that are needed to deliver radical service transformation. Signatories to the Interoperability Charter are committed to ensuring that their information systems are the enablers of change in support of integrated care.

Paul Cooper, Research Director, IMS MAXIMS and techUK Health and Social Care Council member said: "Interoperability is key to delivering shared care across the NHS and social care, and driving the efficiencies demanded by Simon Stevens. IMS MAXIMS welcomes this groundbreaking initiative by techUK and being one of the first signatories is recognition of our committed support to help drive through change."

"In addition we will work closely with other signatories to this charter to provide the level of information exchange required to enable the delivery of better integrated health and care."

An update on signatories will be published in the autumn.