Company signed up to support development of model used as route for integrating health and social care
The team behind the Ripple project has signed technology company Lockheed Martin UK to support its development of a reusable integrated digital platform.
Along with Leeds City Council it has chosen the company to work on the open source IT development of the platform, which they are encouraging other organisations to take up with the support of the NHS Tech Fund.
It has emerged from the development of the Leeds Care Record, using elements of the model and the learning from the project while shifting the technology towards open source.
Framework deal
The deal was carried out through calling off on the council’s ICT framework, on which Lockheed Martin is one of the established suppliers. Its Systems Information and Global Solutions business in the UK has experience in working on open source and open electronic health records, in line with the underpinning architecture used on the Ripple platform.
It will join a number of other companies already involved in the programme.
Leeds’ chief digital officer Dylan Roberts (pictured) said: “Working with global leading organisations like Lockheed Martin is an interesting time for Leeds and for Ripple specifically, demonstrating the ever growing interest in providing software as a service around an open platform based approach.
“Ripple is a clinically led open source platform to support 21st century health and care. An integrated digital care platform not only benefits people in our area but, because the development is open source, it can be used by anyone both nationally and internationally.
"To achieve its mission it requires a mix of SMEs and larger organisations to support the growing appetite to implement solutions that are fit for purpose and are sustainable.”
Integration achievement
The Leeds Care Record was launched in October 2013 to support the integration of health and social care in the city. It is now used by all of the local GPs along with a number of other agencies in areas such as mental health, community health and social care.
Last year the council set up the Ripple programme to make the platform on which the record was built available for reuse as an open source alternative to proprietary systems. It is also based on open standards with the aim of making it flexible for future development.
This story was amended on 14 June to reflect further information on the relationship between the Leeds Care Record and Ripple projects.
