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Dame Fiona Caldicott's report emphasises that patients are at risk if clinicians base decisions on inadequate data Plans to share patient information electronically date back to the Blair government's over-ambitious and now defunct NHS national programme for IT . And despite the coalition's aim that all 6,000-plus GP practices in England must offer patients online access to their records by 2015, so far only 61 are doing so. In her landmark report on patient information in health and social care, Dame Fiona Caldicott puts greater sharing of patient data at the forefront of her 26 recommendations...

St Helens and Knowsley's initiative could become a model as the government pushes to put patient records online by 2014 A teaching hospital in the north-west of England claims it was the first NHS trust in England to become paperless. A year ago, St Helens and Knowsley put the last of its 500,000 patient records on line after spending the previous three years working closely with 88 local GP practices and two other trusts. The first step the trust had to decide was what it wanted a digitalised system to achieve. The new system two requirements: to scan paper records and be able to collect live...

The Patient from Hell urges GPs to get involved in implementing the reforms as he considers what 2013 holds for healthcare The year 2011 was the year of sound and fury, as the health bill staggered drunkenly through parliament, attacked on every side. 2012 was the year of planning the reforms enshrined in the new act. And 2013 will be the year of implementation, when it will be revealed whether the planning has been sufficiently rigorous or whether the act is fatally flawed. It will be a year when everybody will have to work incredibly hard and incredibly smartly, to get it all up and running,...

Join us from noon until 2pm Thursday 6 December to discuss the future of patient data in the NHS – including boundaries of consent and the use of data for relevant trials "The most valuable thing we have in health and social care is data," said executive medical director of the NHS Information Centre for health and social care , Dr Mark Davies, at the healthcare efficiency through technology conference in October. The government accepted the Future Forum's recommendation for a review of the balance between protecting patient information and its sharing to improve patient care – leading...

In an increasingly digital world, NHS websites must be built around patients' needs Historically the NHS and the web have not mixed well. From the furore surrounding initial attempts to introduce e-patient records, to problems with setting up a national application system for junior doctors online, attempts to enhance online offerings have often backfired. However, with Andrew Lansley promising that all patients will be able to book appointments with their GPs online by 2015 , it's time for the NHS to act. Understanding user needs, and how they are being met, must be at the heart of online...

London and south east NHS trusts want replacement for NPfIT e-record system to enable data sharing and mobile working NHS trusts in London and the south east of England are planning to spend up to £300m on a replacement clinical and administrative information system. The system is intended to enable information sharing, along with flexible and mobile working. Peter Gooch, associate director of ICT at Camden and Islington NHS foundation trust and chair of the group of trusts, called the 2015 Clinical Information System Consortium, said the decision to advertise for a new system follows consultations...

Gill Hitchcock finds that many insiders are skeptical about implementation of the government's NHS information strategy The power of information is a punchy title for the government's health and social care strategy. But while this long-awaited document is powerful on rhetoric, it's weak on implementation and reaction has been mixed. Jeremy Taylor, the chief executive of pressure groups Patient Voices, says the strategy is really a vision document: "The language is almost laughably seeking to avoid any impression of top down dictate; because this is the way this government does...