live and the population of which we are a part . The patient themselves has the most power and is largely in charge when it comes to achieving a good outcome .
Take medicines as an example . The patient is responsible for ordering , storing and the daily administration of medicines , presenting for regular review and reporting unwanted effects or a changing situation . Medicines are the most common intervention used by the NHS to treat and prevent ill health . Currently there is considerable interest nationally in the overprescribing of medicines , particularly in older people , and this was published in a review by the
Chief Pharmaceutical Officer in September 2021 . Our initiative , ‘ Me and My Medicines ’ was recognised in the report for its contribution to enable patient and public perspectives to be heard .
The outcome of this project was a communication charter with six principles for both patients and professionals about effective and authentic communication , supporting shared decision making and greater understanding .
Yorkshire & Humber AHSN , along with local providers and commissioners in Leeds , supported this work . The result is a simple and inexpensive resource that is widely available to anyone interested in providing additional support and encouragement for patients to be more involved in the conversations with their health professional about their medicines . The aim is to reduce the risky and inappropriate use of prescription medicines .
Artificial Intelligence and the importance of the patient and public voice
The National Pathology Imaging Co-operative ( NPIC ) is a national collaboration with the goals of ( a ) achieving the introduction of digital pathology and ( b ) developing effective Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) based tools to improve the diagnosis process .
Yorkshire & Humber AHSN played a key role in helping to include and involve the public perspective in this work . We contributed to the recent publication by members of the NPIC team in the
Journal of Pathology and
59 Transforming Lives Through Innovation