Orion Health is holding its UK and Ireland Customer Conference 2022 in Bristol today, 13 September. The theme: how to mature the shared care records that are being rolled out across integrated care systems to support more efficient, better quality and more person-centred care, and to use them to deliver population health management.

The event has just been opened by Gary Birks, the executive vice-president, Europe for Orion Health. He noted that it has been three years since it has been possible to hold the event in person, and thanked everybody who had worked so hard during the Covid-19 pandemic. He also paid tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and led a moment of applause for her dedication.

Turning to the theme of the conference, he said: “Our theme is population health management and sharing our understanding of what happens next. NHS England recognise the core capabilities that we must achieve to progress the journey towards population health management. [These are] creating the infrastructure that can then be used to improve care quality and to analyse data to identify cohorts of patients for which we can devise effective interventions.

“Orion Health supports each of these pillars, while recognising the different journeys that our customers are on, and that they will be starting at different points. In Northern Ireland, we have created a national-level workflow to support patients with diabetes; but other areas want to start by sharing data across regions and with settings like care homes and prisons that are, increasingly, part of that population health picture.”

Orion Health customers will be speaking throughout the day. But first #OrionCC22 has  heard from Brad Porter, who is making his first visit to the UK as chief executive of Orion Health. Brad took over from Ian McCrae in July when he decided, after 30 years, to step back to focus on his health and to set in motion the next phase of the company’s development.

Addressing that development, Brad said: “I come from a healthcare background, and we have a strong team in place. We continue to be the world-leading population health management company, with platforms covering more than 5 million people. We are privately held, and profitable and proud to be celebrating our 30th year. So, what comes next? We are committing the resources to make sure we can support service delivery, and we have a continued commitment to innovation and R&D, specifically focusing on data and analytics capabilities.

“We clearly and simply believe that population health management is needed to secure the future of health and care, and we are committed to working with our customers to achieve that – and it is working. Around the world, countries are releasing data strategies that focus on the need to make healthcare more equitable and accessible to those who need it most. There is also a need for digital to address the waiting lists caused by Covid. And to meet the demands of generation y – who have grown up with digital, use it for everything from shopping to banking, and see no reason for healthcare to be different.

“So, we see that population health management is essential and we need to start by putting the patient at the centre of their care and their healthcare journey. Then, we have to empower clinicians, by avoiding unnecessary interaction with individuals and streamlining their care. And then we need to capture data for the entire population and then applying analytics so we can identify the care needed by the individual before they need it. Orion Health has a vision for doing this: and we have the tools to target the right care, to the right patient, at the right time. The other good news is that we, here, today, are all on that journey.”