iPLATO has been granted NHS Digital assurance for its patient facing app, myGP®, for all practices using SystmOne. The app, which is currently available to all patients registered at an EMIS Health practice as well as patients registered at a GP surgery using any of the products on the myGP platform will now be available to an estimated additional 20.5 million patients, dramatically increasing its reach to offer popular services such as health tracking, appointment booking, prescription ordering, medication reminder and medical record access to over 58.6 million people throughout the country.
Launched in 2016, myGP secured NHS Digital assurance for EMIS Health in 2018. Advanced capabilities available on the myGP® platform include in-app intelligent care navigation, clinical triage and video consultation and patient engagement which all contribute to improve health outcomes, transform the patient experience and reduce the administrative burden on GP practices. Additional myGP modules can be commissioned at a practice, PCN or CCG level.
Speaking of this milestone CEO Tobias Alpsten commented ‘by achieving this assurance patients at 97% of England’s GP surgeries can now use myGP to manage their healthcare needs at their own registered GP surgery. The team here have worked hard to ensure that we met all of the necessary requirements to be granted this assurance, but the real winners are the patients and their practices who previously had limited options for accessing online services and we hope that by using myGP® their lives will be made simpler and more convenient. We are continuously listening to patients and practices about features that would help them in their day-to-day lives.’
Rated number one in terms of downloads in both app stores myGP has emerged as the patient’s app of choice when accessing health services. myGP is now the largest independent patient service in the UK and an attractive option to help practices achieve the targets set out in the GP Contract to offer ‘digital first’ primary care by April 2020. With NHS Digital assurance for SystmOne and EMIS Health alongside integrations to Vision combined with the availability of additional modules, myGP is set to transform the digital landscape in primary care and beyond. In October, patients and practices performed over 11 million transactions on the myGP platform and it is expected that transaction volume through myGP will increase dramatically following TPP SystmOne assurance.
In May, Matthew Gould, Chief Executive NHSX commented in his blog that “I don’t want [us] to make the NHS App all-singing and all-dancing. In fact, I’m not sure we should add many more features than it already has. We will keep the app thin and let others use the platform that we have created to come up with brilliant features on top.”
Continuing his comments, Tobias Alpsten added, “myGP has been included in the first cohort of partners for integration to the NHS Login for single patient sign-on and we are excited to launch this in early 2020. Once enabled, myGP can use the NHS platform and its associated APIs to deliver ‘brilliant features on top’ of the basics of repeat meds, appointment booking and medical record access.”
Recently iPLATO and the myGP platform were awarded a place on the £600 million GPIT Futures Framework. From January 2020, STPs, CCGs, PCNs and other commissioning bodies will be able to utilise the framework to commission the first-class technological and digital capabilities.