Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Propels Digitisation with PhenoTips’ Genomic Health Record.

Toronto, Ontario: Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) accelerates their Digital by Default strategy by harnessing PhenoTips’ cloud-hosted Genomic Health Record to digitise, integrate, and standardise genomic care. 

Genomics is the study of genes within a person’s DNA, their functions, and the influence on the growth and development of the body.

OUH’s adoption of PhenoTips, facilitated by TheHill Digital Ambassador Nigel Parkin, replaces multiple separate digital and physical systems used by the Oxford Centre for Genomic Medicine with a single, unified, electronic patient record (EPR), Genomic Health Record. Within PhenoTips, healthcare professionals can create and store patient records, streamline patient intake through digital questionnaires, electronically generate a family tree, facilitate running cancer risk assessments, and improve ability to record and database patients identified to have rare disease and genetic variants, supporting management of patients and families with inherited or genetic problems.

Nigel Parkin, Service Information and Digital Lead for the Medicine, Rehabilitation and Cardiac Division and TheHill Digital Ambassador said: “It is exciting to work with PhenoTips to bring this identified best in class product to OUH, with contextual information, family records are very difficult to manage in most electronic patient record systems and PhenoTips brings this into play for Genetics. I’d like to express my thanks to Carl Marshall and Ray Banks from the OUH Digital Team for supporting the integration.”

Within the next 5 years, the NHS will take the lead as the first health service to systematically embed genomics into routine care. PhenoTips will support OUH in the greater NHS strategy with the software infrastructure necessary for scaling up genomic testing and services, including functionality that reduces manual transfer of information, introduces automation, and facilitates secure data sharing.

“We are continuously inspired by the commitment of NHS Trusts like Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust towards a digital, patient-centred, precision medicine future,” said PhenoTips’ CEO Dr. Pawel Buczkowicz. “It is an honour to work towards implementing this vision, as it so deeply mirrors our own. We’re excited by the possibilities this partnership with the OUH holds.”

TheHill is OUH’s digital innovation team, working hard to help guide the trust towards digital innovations which help to improve the quality of patient care and lighten the workload of staff. To find out more, visit TheHill’s website here: Welcome to TheHill - TheHill (thehilloxford.org)

About TheHill: TheHill is a digital innovation catalyst embedded within Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, empowering digital innovation in health and care by supporting new approaches which seek to make the NHS more efficient and effective, empower staff and benefit patients. TheHill also reaches the wider digital health and care ecosystem by supporting digital innovators through a variety of programmes and projects. For more information, visit thehilloxford.org.

About Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) is a world-renowned center of clinical excellence and one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the UK. The Trust is made up of four hospitals - the John Radcliffe Hospital (which includes the Children's Hospital, West Wing, Eye Hospital, Heart Centre and Women's Centre), the Churchill Hospital and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, all located in Oxford, and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury, North Oxfordshire. OUH provides a wide range of clinical services, specialist services (including cardiac, cancer, musculoskeletal and neurological rehabilitation) medical education, training and research.

About PhenoTips: PhenoTips’ Genomic Health Record is the leading software solution for medical genetics. Founded in 2014 out of a research project at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the University of Toronto, PhenoTips’ software addresses the challenges commonly faced in medical genetics with a single solution, while preparing clinics for the proliferation of genetic testing into mainstream healthcare. PhenoTips’ solutions support multiple Canadian provincial health authorities, UK NHS Trusts, leading hospitals in the USA, and genetics industry leaders. Learn more about PhenoTips at phenotips.com