Karen Johnson
Empowering patients and supporting care through patient access to their health information, and involving users in the development of solutions.
Karen’s background is in Digital Primary Care, and she has been heavily involved in the development of patient access to their clinical records, online booking of appointments and ordering of repeat prescriptions. This involved clinical engagement, patient engagement, the development of guidance and support, contract negotiations, communications and education and training.
Karen has worked for the NHS since 1986, at both national and local levels. She has a wealth of experience, with key highlights
- G7 International Patient Summary
- Patient online and GP online services
- Policy and strategy development
- Development of best practice guidance
- Education and training
- Information in General Practice @ Leeds PCTs
She is currently supporting the Faculty of Clinical Informatics, and is the founder of DPCT associates.
Roles
G7 International Patient Summary
During 2021, Karen was the programme lead for the successful G7 International patient summary (IPS), which was tasked to work out how an IPS could be developed and used across G7 countries. The wider ambition that solutions and deliverables could be adopted or modified by any other country or region, required them to be flexible and dynamic. Interoperability and open standards were also key to meeting the needs of the differing health economies, enabling each country to progress at their own pace from an agreed starting point to a sophisticated data exchange model. The G7 digital health reports are available on the UK government website.
She structured the programme using Agile and brought together a matrix team from different parts of NHS England.
Patient online and GP online services
As part of patient online, Karen commissioned the RCGP to develop guidance to support GP practices with rolling out online services. Working as part of the specification and editorial teams, they provided guidance on tricky topics such as proxy third-party access, and developed online learning modules
She also led the development of patient information, working with patient groups and producing resources on using online services, what was in the GP records and keeping safe online, amongst others.
Development of best practice guidance
As part of patient online, Karen commissioned the RCGP to develop guidance to support GP practices with rolling out online services. Working as part of the specification and editorial teams, they provided guidance on tricky topics such as proxy third-party access, and developed online learning modules
She also led the development of patient information, working with patient groups and producing resources on using online services, what was in the GP records and keeping safe online, amongst others.
Information in General Practice @ Leeds PCTs
Karen joined Leeds PCT in 2002, with the remit to improve the use of and the data recorded in GP Clinical systems. To this end she developed and implemented the Information in General Practice (IiGP) programme across 130 practices.
Prior to this programme, practices were rewarded with free clincal system training for submitting information to their PCT. However, this did not address the issue, of if you did not know how to use your system or code information into it, the quality of the information was not going to be great. IiGP gave free training to GP practices and locum GPs. It started with a day of Read coding and another of system training, with the practice deciding who needed training and what on, moving away from the one training session to fit all regardless of role and previous knowledge.
PRODIGY decision support
Based at the University of Newcastle, PRODIGY was a decision support tool, which integrated into a GP clinical system providing guidance on the most appropriate treatment and care pathway for a range of conditions.
Karen developed the training and education programme for PRODIGY, giving lectures and presentations.
Collection of Health Data from General Practice (CHDGP)
CHDGP was the pilot programme for Primary Care Information Services (PRIMIS) which is run out of the University of Nottingham. As part of a small team, she developed the training for MIQUEST, Read coding, and data quality, and promoted these nationally. During this time, she was the coding advisor for the Prescribing Support Unit.
Skills and abilities
Qualifications and training
- Post-graduate diploma in education
- ATACE adult education
- APMG Agile foundation
- APMG Prince2 practitioner
- APMG Better business cases
- Mental Health First Aid England
- Leadership development and change management
- Media training
- Writing in plain English
Experience
Business
- Health informatics, with specialist focus in general practice
- Contract and business negotiations
- Strategy development and delivery
- Programme management
- Production of best practice guidance
- Education, training and professional development
- Data recording and use
Leadership
- Team leadership, development, and support
- Mentoring
Communications
- Public speaking and lecturing
- Conference and exhibition management
- Brand and identity management
- Production of promotional materials
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