Yorkshire & Humber Care Record

The Challenge

• The population health component of YHCR’s solution needed access to the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN)

• YHCR needed access to national services such as the Personal

  Demographics Service (PDS) in order to achieve programme aims

• HSCN connectivity routed via the on-premise solution was slow

  which affected the real-time sharing of data

In 2018, NHS England invited proposals from NHS and local government partner organisations to participate in a programme of local health and care record exemplars. The programme aimed to deliver the promise of improved care and spearhead efforts towards closer more integrated means of working. The purpose was to create an information sharing environment where real-time data is shared for better understanding of health and disease, and more effective patient care. This focused on prevention or improved management of ill health for healthcare providers plus public empowerment to make better choices about their own health.

Yorkshire & Humber Care Record (YHCR) was a successful exemplar within the programme. YHCR had built a solution which was systems and supplier agnostic, with an initial focus on cancer and urgent care. The solution for the shared record component was built on-premise. However, for the population health component, which shares clinical direct care information across the region, data needed to be pulled in real-time, de-identified and then used for specific population health requirements.

For the population health component YHCR decided on an internet-first approach using Google Cloud Platform. With this came a need for connectivity with the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) back to health and social care systems, as well as direct access via the internet as required. The connectivity would allow YHCR to get access to national services such as the demographic service, Southern Care Record, and others only accessible via the private government network.

The on-premise instance already had HSCN connectivity in place. In order to connect the solution built in Google Cloud to the HSCN, YHCR had routed via on-premise in order to get access to the Personal Demographics Service (PDS). The on-premise platform had secure connectivity to the cloud built application, however the connection was often slow and clunky, severely affecting the ability to share data in real-time - the main ingredient to achieve the programme’s purpose and improve patient outcomes.

A new perspective was needed.

The Solution

• End-to-end connectivity platform from Cloud Gateway to connect

  YHCR’s solution, built in Google Cloud Platform, to the HSCN

• A proof of concept was able to be provisioned in minutes using

  cloud-native innovation

• HSCN connectivity provisioned and onboarded in just two weeks

  from the first engagement with YHCR

YHCR was looking for a provider who could advise on complete end-to-end connectivity to connect their solution, built in Google Cloud Platform, to the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN). The team at Google had been working with Cloud Gateway, a technology partner, on similar projects and so recommended Cloud Gateway to the YHCR programme team.

Working with YHCR, the Cloud Gateway team was able to set up a proof of concept in minutes, using cloud-native connectivity platform, PRISM. As experts in cloud connectivity and networking disciplines, Cloud Gateway cut through the complexity of the task at hand, working closely with the YHCR programme team to provision and test before launch.

A new PRISM tenancy with scalable HSCN connectivity was provisioned, with YHCR fully onboarded, in just two weeks from the first engagement. Cloud Gateway created a diverse Cloud Interconnect from the YHCR virtual private cloud (VPC) in Google Cloud to their tenancy on Cloud Gateway. All traffic to and from the HSCN is routed via Cloud Gateway and subject to security policies.

As soon as the platform had been deployed, YHCR could send real-time data to the HSCN for sharing of information across health providers in the region and improved intelligence to positively affect population health.

The Impact

• Scalable HSCN connectivity from Cloud Gateway provides YHCR

  with the capability to consolidate and deploy at speed

• YHCR’s solution improves collaboration to achieve enhanced patient care and outcomes in the region

• HSCN connectivity will allow YHCR to provide further local solutions

  in the future

Yorkshire & Humber Care Record is a new partnership being established across the Yorkshire and Humber region to provide health and care staff with better and faster access to vital information about the person in their care. It will also provide citizens with access to their information and encourage them to be more involved in looking after their health.

The YHCR platform supports population health management and improved collaboration to achieve enhanced patient care and outcomes in the region.

With instantly scalable Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) connectivity from Cloud Gateway in place, the need to duplicate or even triplicate data is removed providing YHCR with the capability to consolidate and deploy at speed. The HSCN connectivity is essential for YHCR to link to national systems such as the PDS and without it progress and deployment would have been severely hampered.

With the Google Cloud to HSCN connectivity in place and the increase in speed of deployment, YHCR are now planning to go live with significant pieces of work around emergency care, crisis plans and mental health, following the success of this part of the programme.

Further access to systems such as the National Record Locator Service or GP Connect will allow YHCR to provide further local solutions in the future.