‘Don’t buy Epic’ unless it integrates with NHS App, says government adviser

The NHS should no longer do business with leading tech supplier Epic unless future iterations of its technology work with the NHS App, a senior government adviser has warned.

Professor Paul Corrigan was appointed by the Department of Health and Social Care in the summer to help shape its 10-year health plan. Speaking at an event organised by HSJ and IBM on Tuesday, he praised Epic’s ’My Chart’ App which is supplied alongside its electronic patient record system and provides patients with a wide range of useful information.

However, he expressed concern that it did not integrate with the NHS App, and said: ”The NHS, in my view, should not buy the next generation of Epic if it doesn’t talk to the NHS App”.

Professor Corrigan gave a detailed analysis of how the NHS needed to work better with technology businesses.

As part of this he said: “The ability to have interoperability [between IT] is greater and greater almost every year, but we are still constructing bits of pathways which are not interoperable. The main thing I would say is that we need to ensure that whatever kit is being bought talks to other kit and that you’re not allowed… to construct bits of pathways that don’t talk to others.”

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Source: HSJ, 6 December 2024