The summary care record (SCR) and HealthSpace system introduced by the UK's National Health Service have only brought modest benefits, according an independent evaluation.
The report from University College London, produced after three years of research, found that although millions have been told about these two programmes, SCR and HealthSpace accounts are being created much slower than planned.
Progress in both programmes has been delayed by a number of problems, including difficulties in defining a 'minimal dataset' of key medical data, ensuring GP records are complete and accurate, and the need to gain informed consent from 50 million people.
There have also been some technical and operational challenges associated with uploading data onto the SCR database from local GP records.
The SCR is an electronic summary of key health data that is available to authorised NHS staff, while HealthSpace is a personal health organiser that can help people plan appointments.
