Award-winning online advice improves care

The Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) electronic advice service provides GPs with timely specialist advice through the sharing of electronic patient records with St Luke’s hospital consultant, Dr John Stoves.

The team behind the scheme was awarded first prize at the 2011 British Journal of Renal Medicine Innovation Awards for the successful introduction of the new approach to delivering renal care.

Dr Stoves, consultant in nephrology and general medicine from Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have demonstrated that record sharing allows timely, safe and effective virtual review of patients with mild-to-moderate chronic kidney disease in the community.

“In addition to giving electronic advice to GP colleagues, the Bradford renal team is now better able to manage its dialysis and kidney transplant patients by accessing primary care electronic patient records to facilitate medicines reconciliation and streamlining of shared care pathways such as anaemia management, hepatitis vaccination and coordination of palliative care services. We have presented our positive experience of record sharing to colleagues in nephrology and other chronic disease specialities, both regionally and nationally, and received invaluable support from Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority and NHS Kidney Care.”

It is hoped that teams across the country will now be encouraged to adopt the same approach.

Dr John Connolly, clinical lead for technology at NHS Bradford and Airedale, said: “We are encouraged that the renal medicine community have recognised the potential to improve the care of chronic kidney disease patients by sharing clinical records across organisational boundaries, allowing hospital-based specialists to provide expert advice to primary-care clinicians who would otherwise have to transfer the patient into hospital care.”