US-UK agree to ‘unprecedented’ health data sharing

A bilateral agreement signed by the U.S. and United Kingdom will advance health IT tools and data sharing to accelerate improvements in the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery in both countries.

Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius and U.K. Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt, broadcast live from his office in London, signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the Office for the National Coordinator for Health IT Annual Meeting on Jan. 23.

The MOU “lays the groundwork for an unprecedented amount of health data sharing” while driving quality indicators, liberating data, adopting digital record and priming the healthcare market, Sebelius said.

In comments on the MOU, Hunt described the U.S. and U.K. as countries that “passionately believe that technology and transparency can really transform healthcare.” The MOU will focus on the following areas:

• Sharing quality indicators: The collaboration reviewed existing quality indicators and selected depression symptom screening and knee/hip quality indicators, and is now identifying alignments across existing repositories to identify best practices in the design and use of quality indicators. Future work will include mutually leveraging technical experts and data, and working on a standardized approach to quality indicator development.
• Liberating data and putting them to work: HHS and National Health Service will collaborate around open data and safe and secure data transparency of secondary stored data and interoperability standards for better data sharing with a focus on consumer access.
• Adopting digital health record systems: Both organizations will work to maximize successful EHR adoption and support the development of a robust health IT workforce.
• Priming the health IT market: Both organizations will work to support the health IT marketplace by identifying barriers to innovation, sharing individual certification approaches for patients and clinician-facing applications, and strategies to support small and medium enterprises/start-ups.

President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron originally expressed an interest in collaborating in the health IT space last March, Sebelius said at the meeting.

Bryan Sivak, ‎HHS chief technology officer, said the joint effort to develop the MOU really took off after the Health Datapalooza conference in Washington, D.C. last June. “I’m personally looking forward to seeing the fruits of this budding partnership. This is about sharing and spreading innovation. It will be fantastic for both countries,” he said.