Healthcare’s Freeserve Moment
This article was published by HealthTechX360 on 20 August 2025. The launch of Freeserve was a founding moment for Europe in 1998. People queued outside electronics shops to get the free CD that gave them free internet access from home. This followed opening up the nation’s telecoms network to the private sector. The UK’s regulatory…
Growing markets need small payments
This article was published in ICT & Health on 18 August 2025. “A crocodile in the Yangtze” was how Alibaba’s founder described its defence against eBay’s entry to China. Alibaba, he explained, knew that China was different to what had powered eBay’s growth, and that eBay would be too confident to adjust. Alibaba did defend…
Citizen ownership is the only path to a single patient record
This article was published in Digital Health on 4 August 2025. Do not miss the foundational idea in the 10-year plan. Amongst all the details of Wes Streeting’s 10-year plan for the NHS – scale up robotic surgery; shut down Qangos; tie doctors’ pay to patients’ opinions – the Single Patient Record may sound too dull…
If you are lying, I will have all this checked on the computer
If you liked “Mr Bates vs the Post Office”, you must read “Last Among Equals: Power, Cast and Politics in Bihar”. One day Sanjay, an electrician in Delhi, returns home to his village in Bihar to visit his parents. He passes by some Dalit caste women talking about not getting paid for the NAREGA. What…
On direct letters
“I am just writing to thank you for the fantastic NHS care I received” was the first letter the Department of Health gave to the Rt Hon Sir Jeremy Hunt, MP. As Secretary of State for Health at the time he asked to read and reply to one letter every day, a habit he continued…
What the first day at work like for Simon Stevens?
“I saw Simon Stevens on his first day in the NHS”, he said. One of my joys is visiting customer sites and meeting the people making healthcare work. On this day I was taking photos of the kiosks that allow patients to check into their outpatient appointment, then register for Patients Know Best to see…
Visiting Vitalis conference in Sweden
I feel short visiting our Dutch customers, so I spent the whole day looking up at my giant hosts in Sweden’s Vitalis conference . This is the largest Nordic health care IT conference and it’s interesting seeing how they organise their care. Their medical records procurements are regional, not by care setting. The market leader…
Interview with Times Radio
‘Early is punctual, on time is late.’ I’ll say that again because it takes a couple of goes: ‘Early is punctual, on time is late.’ He literally redefined the meaning of two words to underpin his own obsession with being on time. That’s Geoff Norcott describing his dad, whose “punctual” pushed Norcott into studying hard…
Attorney of the poor, Dr John Birt Davies
“The coroner frequents more public houses than any man alive.” wrote Charles Dickens in Bleakhouse. Apparently, legislation required that inquests should take place as close as possible to the place of death, and it had long been the practice to hold them in pubs. This and many other interesting facts and stories are part of…
“The Patient Perspective” panel at Abu Dhabi Health Week
I’m at Abu Dhabi Global Health Week and will be speaking on Thursday with Healthcare World panel. My focus is how patients – the latest and largest health care providers – can do more, better, with the right data and technology. Like Richard the kidney patient who uses @Patients Know Best.Steve Gardner and I will…
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CEO blog at Patients know best 