Not Just Patients
Hello and welcome to Not Just Patients, a podcast where we break barriers to meaningful patient involvement in healthcare.
We’re your hosts, Caitlin Rich and Clarinda Cerejo. We’re both rare disease patients and qualified patient experts. And we are so much more.
Join us and our guests as we challenge patient stereotypes, highlight successful collaborations in healthcare, and share energizing tales of turning adversity into advocacy.
Have feedback or suggestions for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at info@notjustpatients.com or find us on LinkedIn.
Not Just Patients
Empowering Patients through Access to Medical Records | Richard Fitton
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Join us for an enlightening conversation with Dr Richard Fitton, retired GP and long-time champion of patient access to electronic medical records, as we explore what it really means to share data, power, and responsibility with patients.
Richard’s journey spans more than four decades of pioneering work: from early computerised records in the 1980s, to leading one of the first NHS pilots for online patient record access, moderating the WHO working group that drafted the 8th Patient Right of the WHO Patient Safety Charter – the right to access your own records.
In this episode, we unpack what medical records are, who they serve, and how they can enable genuine patient-clinical partnership. We also explore global barriers digitization and how they can be overcome, sharing hopeful stories of how small efforts have scaled to influence national guidance and international policy.
This episode offers a practical and deeply human vision for how medical records can support patients in becoming informed partners in their own care.
Chapters:
- 00:00:00 - Introductions and episode overview
- 00:03:21 - Defining electronic health records
- 00:12:06 - Richard's journey with health records
- 00:22:11 - The Harold Shipman serial killer case
- 00:26:36 - Sharing records with patients
- 00:32:28 - Barriers and global disparities
- 00:36:25 - Driving global adoption
- 00:42:59 - Initiatives to overcome barriers
- 00:50:22 - Advice for clinicians
- 00:53:28 - Reflections with Caitlin and Clarinda
Resources and abbreviations:
- 8th Patient Right of the WHO Patient Safety Charter
- Lawrence Weed Problem-Oriented Medical Record
- Black Report
- Acheson Report
- Harold Shipman case
- Department of Health Copying Letters to Patients working group
- NHS – National Health Service (UK)
- GP – General Practitioner
- EHR / EHRs – Electronic Health Record(s)
- GMC – General Medical Council (UK)
- WHO – World Health Organization
- ICD – International Classification of Diseases (referenced via “Reed codes from ICD and SNOMED”)
- SNOMED – Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine – Clinical Terms
- WMJ - World Medical Journal
- NICE - National Institute of Clinical Excellence
- Prior episode with rare disease advocate Emily Reuben OBE
Have feedback or suggestions for us? We'd love to hear from you!
Website: notjustpatients.com
LinkedIn: Not Just Patients
Email: info@notjustpatients.com
