HSJ: What role might better data play in overcoming patient safety challenges?

It is now clear that hormone pregnancy test Primodos, the epilepsy drug sodium valproate, and that pelvic mesh causes avoidable harm to many thousands of women and children. Yet recognising these potential harms took many years, and it is still the case that the service does not know the identities of all those affected or potentially affected.

The main reason is lack of data. Knowing which patients have received which medicines and devices where, and quickly connecting longer-term outcomes, has traditionally been somewhere between impossible and extremely slow and difficult. Unnecessary harm has often been the result.

So how can the NHS solve this issue? What do we know about the traditional challenges with traceability in healthcare and the shortcomings of current data collection techniques? How can it be ensured that the right products are being used for the right patient?

What approaches and technologies might solve these challenges, ensuring that the right products are being used for the right patient? How could this fit into wider digital transformation work, and resulting data best be used to improve patient safety and outcomes?

This HSJ webinar, run in association with GS1 UK, will bring together a small panel to consider the answers to these important questions.

Register