Egton Medical Information Systems

EMIS Health, formerly known as Egton Medical Information Systems, supplies electronic patient record systems and software used in primary care in England. The company is based in Leeds. It claims that more than half of GP practices across the UK use EMIS software.

EMIS Group, which includes Egton Medical Information Systems Limited, also comprises:

The company bought Pinbellcom Group which supplies administration and compliance software to both the primary and the secondary care markets in July 2015.

EMIS is one of the suppliers approved by the GP Systems of Choice and so funded by the NHS. Through its Patient Access service, EMIS was the first clinical system providers to enable patients to book GP appointments online and order repeat prescriptions. Patient Access also enables patients to access their own records online. EMIS Web had been rolled out to 3750 practices in September 2014.

EMIS Web allows primary, secondary and community healthcare practitioners to view and contribute to a patient’s electronic healthcare record. Failures to link up medical records held by hospitals and those kept by their family doctors put patient's lives at risk, according to Prof Steve Field of the Care Quality Commission. He says this could be tackled by giving patients access to their own records – a system pioneered using Emis software, in an attempt to restore patient confidence, by Dr Amir Hannan when he took over Harold Shipman's practice. "He’s got examples of patients being admitted to hospital where they have had to show the consultants their record which may have saved their lives. It’s policy to try and make it happen. But it’s not moving quickly enough.” Emis were the first provider of GP record systems to permit Patient record access. EMIS said that the numbers of practices providing patients with online access to their records ‘shot up’ after it allowed GPs to tailor the parts of the record that patients can see. Shaun O’Hanlon, EMIS's Chief Clinical Officer says that the legal framework around data sharing is the main problem in integrating patient data because the Data Protection Act 1998 puts responsibilities on GPs to protect the confidentiality of patient data, but at the same time they have a “duty to share” when it is in the best interests of the patient. He says the quickest, easiest route to large scale record sharing is to put patients in the driving seat using smartphone technology. He quotes a YouGov poll which found that 85% of the population wanted any medical professional directly responsible for their treatment to have secure electronic access to key data from their GP record, such as long term conditions, medication history or allergies. EMIS Web supports Summary Care Records.

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