The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has backed the digital version of a the personal record book given to new parents.
Mothers of every child born in the UK are given a paper-based personal child health record, informally known as the ‘Redbook’.
But after two years of development, the eRedbook has been launched online allowing parents to keep track of their child’s health on a computer.
In a significant boost, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has backed the innovation along with other health professionals. eRedbook is the first Personal Health Record in the UK to be endorsed by a Royal College.
An RCPCH spokesman said: “After two years of collaborative with NHS colleagues and private sector partners, the RCPCH is pleased to announce its endorsement of the eRedbook: a digital initiative which sees the content and ethos of the Personal Child Health Record (PCHR) transferred to a more secure and easily accessible online format for parents and health professionals to use in the management of a child’s ealthcare.”
The endorsement comes in time for Trusts that are looking to use Nursing Tech Fund 2 to obtain funding for offering eRedbook to new parents.
A total of £35 million is available for NHS Trusts that wish to innovate the delivery of care and free up more time for patients through the use of digital technology. eRedbook is a prime example of a Personal Health Record that enables collaboration between health professionals and parents, offering parents a new way to interact with the health and development of their child. It is currently being trialled by Liverpool community Health NHS Trust and South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust.
Dr David Low, Chair of Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s Informatics for Quality Committee, said: “Using digital tools, the eRedbook is an important example of the paradigm shift of clinician to citizen of management of healthcare – an important move that brings the red book into a 21s Century way of working.”
“This development which is professionally assured, and complies with the standards established by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, provides the mechanism to improve parent and children engagement, and allows them to co-manage, with professionals, their care and the recommendations of the healthy child programme.”
Dan Moulin, Sitekit Project Director for eRedbook, said: “This is the first untethered Personal Health Record to be endorsed by a Royal College. This forward thinking will help trusts to rapidlyado pt the innovation and deliver the vision set out in the ‘Five Year Forward View’ and ‘Personalising Health and Care 2020’. Providing parents with a personalised health record that they can share with clinicians is a really important part of the ‘Digital Revolution’ that is happening in healthcare.”
Jane Banks, eRedbook Year Zero project lead at Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust, said: “The Royal College endorsement is exciting and really important. The red book has been around for many years, so it is important to professionals that the Royal College has endorsed this new version. We hope it will encourage other organisations to come on board and help develop the eRedbook.”
