Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s simple, registration to the fully funded programme takes only a few minutes. We request practice consent to invite their patients.
Step 1: GP practice gives consent to send invite to opted-in patients.
Step 2: iPLATO sends a short SMS invite from “NHS-NoReply” to patients with information on how to volunteer.
If a patient decides to join Our Future Health, they will be asked to:
- Read the participant information and sign a consent form
- Fill in a health questionnaire online
- Give consent to securely link to their health records
- Book and attend an appointment at a community venue or pharmacy to have some physical measurements taken, including height and weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and provide a small blood sample
Volunteers will be offered the choice of having their blood sample taken by either a trained professional or a phlebotomist in training. All team members taking blood samples will work within our rigorous guidelines, which were written by experienced doctors, to ensure that participants feel as comfortable and safe as possible while the sample is being taken. For example, if the team member is unsuccessful in finding a vein on their first attempt, they will immediately have the supervisor take over, to ensure the volunteer does not experience any unnecessary discomfort.
Joining Our Future Health is, first and foremost, an act to help all.
With a shared desire to make positive change happen for others, GP practices around England can help to drive the national research bank forwards.
Registering your practice ensures your patients are fully represented in the largest research data set of our time. Your patients will have the ability to help future generations live healthier and longer lives.
And, in time, you will be able to make anonymised data requests to understand the health of your local population.
People taking part in the Our Future Health research programme will be offered the results of the physical measurements such as blood pressure, pulse rate, height, weight and cholesterol. These results are written down on a leaflet that provides information about normal ranges for these measures and signposts participants to next steps if their measures are outside the normal range.
In the future, Our Future Health may contact participants to ask if they would like to receive personal results from their blood samples. If Our Future Health does get in touch for this reason, they will give the participant more information and the chance to ask questions. They will be able to say yes or no to receiving personal results.
Accessing a participant’s health records will help to identify events related to their health, such as being diagnosed with a disease by their GP or an admission to hospital. It will allow Our Future Health to investigate if there are any aspects of their health, lifestyle or variations in their genes that made the event more or less likely.
Linking to a participant’s health records will also help Our Future Health to collect their health information for years after they first enter the programme, including detail that cannot be collected from blood samples or a questionnaire, such as X-ray or scan results.
Registered researchers will be able to apply to the Our Future Health Access Board to do research studies using the de-identified data and samples, accessed via a highly secure online research environment. Our Future Health will have a clear process in place to confirm the identity and credibility of researchers and their research organisations who apply to do research.
Some of the research will be done by researchers at Our Future Health, but most of it will be carried out by other researchers. These researchers might be from universities or companies involved in health research, such as pharmaceutical and health technology companies. Access will only be granted for the purposes of health research that is for the public good. Members of the Access Board will include experts, members of the public and ultimately participants in the programme.
Our Future Health is a collaboration between the public, private and charity sectors, with initial funding from the UK Government. It is also funded by companies that make medicines andequipment used in healthcare.
Our Future Health has a full list of partners and how they are involved in the programme on their website. Researchers who are approved to conduct research using Our Future Health will also contribute to the programme’s running costs.
Patients will receive one of the below Text Message templates:
Template A - Practice Name invites you to join Our Future Health, the UK’s largest health research programme. By taking part, you can help transform the detection of cancer, heart disease and many more life-changing conditions. It is quick and easy to sign up here https://mygp.me/OFHa
Template B - Practice Name invites you to join Our Future Health, the UK’s largest health research programme. By taking part, you can also learn about your personal health such as your blood pressure and cholesterol. It is quick and easy to sign up here https://mygp.me/OFHbNo – the message wording is consistent for all and no changes will be possible.
If there are any issues or queries, you may email us at hub@iplato.com or call 020 3743 0060 and ask for the Hub Project Delivery team.
There is absolutely no charge for the service as this is a fully funded project. The practice does not incur any charge for text messaging or set up.
This service does not affect any of your current messaging services and runs independently to this.
Yes, although we would encourage a discussion with the practice to understand the reasons for this and explore any support we could provide the practice to ensure continued participation.
As there is no “accreditation” of GDPR compliance, we can only advise that we have worked with our legal specialists, Data Protection Officer, and NHS England to ensure that iPLATO Healthcare are 100% GDPR compliant in line with legislation.
iPLATO meets all requirements for Data Protection and DS&P (Information Governance) and is trusted by customers across the UK to handle, securely 21.5 million clients.
Please see below the Data Sharing Agreements, Data Processing Agreement and Terms in place:
https://www.pcm.nhs.uk/pcm_tc.php
https://www.iplato.com/dpa.pdf
It is not necessary to collect express consent from clients to communicate with them. GDPR does not regulate communication with clients, instead it is about the legal basis to process an individual’s data and their rights. In the healthcare space, providers use their “public task” legal basis to process client data for the provision of healthcare. clients can then express their preferences not to be communicated via particular means and this is normally common practice in surgeries.
For more on how GDPR affects client messaging in the healthcare industry: https://mailchi.mp/8dda68c0a4ac/countdown-to-gdpr-4-things-you-need-to-know