Beyond the Digital Record: Turning NHS information into clinical impact

The next phase of healthcare digitisation will not be defined by how many records have been converted from paper. It will be defined by how effectively the information within those records can be used to improve care.

The NHS 10-year plan has placed the digital shift at the centre of its future vision for our health service

Yet success will not be measured by the number of new systems deployed. It will be measured by whether technology and data release time for care, connect pathways and help clinicians and NHS leaders make better decisions. That is the real digital challenge - and opportunity for NHS technology suppliers - for the decade ahead. 

It is this opportunity that sits at the heart of our vision and purpose, and where we are taking MediViewer and LEO. 

Digitising the clinical record was, and still is, essential (with plenty of work still to do)

But the next productivity gain will not come simply from storing more information. Greater value comes when that information can be understood, connected and made useful at the point where a clinical or operational decision needs to be made. 

Hospitals hold vast amounts of valuable knowledge about their patients and pathways, but too much of it remains difficult to retrieve, interpret and use when it matters. This is not simply a data challenge. It is an information-to-action challenge. 

Clinical time is one of the scarcest resources in the NHS. Every minute a clinician spends reconstructing the patient story is a minute not spent making the decision. And it is decision-making where clinicians add their greatest value. 

Our ambition is to evolve MediViewer beyond the traditional role of a clinically focused electronic document management system. We see its future as a richer clinical information system - one that makes the patient history more accessible and understandable, fits naturally into clinical workflows and helps hospitals turn existing information into better decisions and outcomes. 

The question is no longer simply, “Can the clinician find the record?” 

It is, “Can we surface and bring forward information that matters, quickly enough to influence what happens next?” 

Our roadmap is to build on that foundation, moving towards clinical context and insight for clinicians to action. 

That means reducing the effort required to assemble the patient story, surfacing relevant connections and helping clinicians navigate a longitudinal history more quickly. It must also be traceable, transparent and keep clinical judgement firmly with the clinician. 

This is where the relationship between MediViewer and LEO becomes particularly powerful, and where I believe we have an opportunity to create significantly more value for our customers.  

LEO’s AI capabilities give us the ability to turn information that is often unstructured or buried within documents into meaningful, governed, structured data. Its strategic value goes well beyond managing workflow. It provides a foundation on which new forms of clinical and operational value can be created.

For MediViewer, at patient level, we are developing AI-enabled summarisation use cases, designed around a simple aim: to give clinicians “what they need to know”, not just “what they are looking for”. 

A summary should never become a substitute for the clinical record. It should act as a trusted route into it, presenting a concise view of the relevant history, highlighting what may require attention and allowing the clinician to easily reference the source evidence. 

Looking ahead, the same foundation could support preparation for clinics and multidisciplinary meetings, better-informed handovers, pathway reviews and earlier identification of missing information. The opportunity is to make the patient’s history work harder throughout the care journey, rather than relying on someone to find the right document at the right time.

The value becomes even greater when we look beyond an individual patient

Much of the information held within clinical records remains difficult to use at scale because it sits within unstructured documents, which is why is we want to make more of it available as governed, structured data to support pathway improvement, clinical audit, service planning and a clearer understanding of variation, demand and outcomes. 

For NHS organisations, this capability could complement wider data strategies and help create a more complete view of how care is being delivered. For Mizaic, it provides a platform for new, customer-led capabilities that demonstrate clearer value. The purpose is not to create more data. It is to make existing information more useful. 

Referrals provide an early and practical example. A referral is the start of a patient pathway, not simply an item to be moved between queues. Although capacity remains a significant challenge, pathway delay can also be created by the time required to find, check, interpret and move information between teams. By making the relevant information clearer, more complete and available earlier, clinical teams can spend less time reconstructing what is already known and more time deciding what should happen next. LEO can structure the key information, identify potential gaps, provide a clearer summary and support guideline-aligned triage signposting. The clinician remains in control, while greater visibility helps the pathway progress from intake through triage and onward management. 

At Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, LEO is already providing a central view of referral activity, reducing reliance on printing, scanning and physical hand-offs. Clinicians can review referrals more flexibly from wherever they are, and teams can see where work is sitting and where bottlenecks are emerging.  

This is not simply workflow automation; it is a step towards a more connected and clinically informed pathway. 

- Jon Pickering, CEO | Mizaic

For Bedfordshire, that early impact is beginning to show in the intelligence now available to services: clearer insight into referral demand, their A&G conversion rate, turnaround times and triage capacity.   Which in turn is supporting service planning and clinician job planning as the Trust prepares for Single Point of Access. 

This is why I see MediViewer and LEO as more than just two products

MediViewer provides record intelligence: making the patient history accessible and understandable. LEO adds pathway intelligence: helping information inform what happens next. Together, they begin to close the gap between what an organisation knows and how quickly it can act. 

In the future, this could mean a clinician receiving a referral alongside a concise view of the relevant patient history; missing information being identified earlier; referrals reaching the right service with less avoidable delay; and operational teams seeing where information friction is contributing to pressure on flow and capacity. 

It could also enable clinical and operational leaders to understand pathway variation, identify opportunities for earlier intervention and make better use of data while care is being delivered—not simply as an analytics exercise after the event.

We need to commit to helping NHS Trusts gain more from their existing digital estate and make the information within it work harder

It is also important that we develop this vision in the right way. AI should not create another layer of technology between clinicians and patients. It should reduce the burden around finding, interpreting and acting on information. Our approach must remain clinically led, customer-validated, secure, transparent and grounded in evidence. 

The future of clinical information is not another system for clinicians to manage. It is trusted information, intelligently organised and available at the point of need. 

Our ambition is to help hospitals move from records to insight, from disconnected tasks to joined-up pathways, and from data that is stored to data that delivers clinical value. 

That is the next Mizaic chapter for MediViewer and LEO, and where I believe we can make our greatest contribution to NHS teams and the patients they serve. 

Keen to continue the conversation? Get in touch to explore how Mizaic can build on your Trust’s digital foundations. Or, explore our case studies to see the results of our technology in action.