Why the NHS needs a single patient record to prepare for the AI era
From Digital Health Unplugged by digitalhealth
January 27, 2026 · 28 min · Episode 113
About this episode
Charlotte Refsum discusses the importance of a single patient record in the AI era for the NHS.
In this episode of Digital Health Unplugged, Charlotte Refsum, director of health policy at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, explains why a single patient record is becoming increasingly important in the age of AI. Refsum tells Tammy Lovell, editor at Digital Health News, that as AI, data and digital technologies begin to reshape health systems, data unification is critical to support safer care, new models of delivery and a fundamentally different way of running the NHS. Drawing on her experience from the UK and health systems around the world, Refsum reflects on how digital could enable more integrated and preventative care, empower people to better manage their own health, and change the way patients interact with services through tools such as the NHS App. The conversation also explores the challenges standing in the way of this vision, including data sharing, public trust, interoperability and legacy systems, as well as discussing what to expect from the NHS 10 year health plan. Refsum will be delivering a keynote at Digital Health Rewired, to give her views on what comes next in the NHS’s shift to digitisation and prevention. The event is taking place at the…
People in this episode
Host: Tammy Lovell
Guest: Charlotte Refsum
Topics covered
- NHS
- AI in healthcare
- patient records
- data unification
- digital health
- health policy
Keywords
- NHS
- AI
- patient record
- data sharing
- digital health
- health systems
- interoperability
- preventative care
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, NHS, Digital Health News
Places: Birmingham NEC
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