Patients Know Best
Patients Know Best is a British social enterprise that provides patient-controlled personal health records and connected health-data infrastructure.
Last updated August 25, 2026
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Overview
Patients Know Best (PKB) is a British social enterprise focused on giving patients access to, and control over, their medical information. Rather than presenting itself primarily as a conventional clinical-record system, the organisation operates a patient-centred personal health record model designed to connect information from healthcare providers, patients, public-health systems and selected partner services. The central architecture is known as the Single Patient Record. Information relating to an individual can be assembled from participating healthcare organisations and other approved sources, allowing the patient to view a longitudinal record through PKB's Personal Health Record viewer. Data may enter the record through direct application-programming-interface integrations with customers and partners, through connections to electronic medical-record systems after a patient registers, or through information manually entered by the patient or another authorised user. The reference material identifies integrations with general-practice electronic records in England and with provider systems in the Netherlands. PKB's stated data model places the patient at the centre of access decisions. Patients are described as owning their record and choosing which people or organisations can access it, and which parts of the record they may see. Sharing can occur through explicit consent from the patient or through implicit consent in the context of direct care. This approach is intended to make health information more portable and to support collaboration across otherwise separate healthcare services. The company also operates a Population Health Management Engine. This uses information from the Single Patient Record to generate explanations and patient-facing insights within the personal health record. The cited examples include identifying potentially relevant clinical trials and supporting medication optimisation. These functions position PKB between a record-access product and a broader coordination and population-health platform, although the available reference material does not provide detailed technical, financial or clinical-outcome measurements. PKB works with healthcare providers and governments. In England, its personal health record has been integrated into the NHS App. In the Netherlands, it is connected with the government's personal health record infrastructure, known as persoonlijke gezondheidsomgeving, or PGO. The reference material also describes a Single Patient Record initiative for Lagos State in Nigeria, covering a population stated as approximately 20 million. In Wales, PKB has been associated with integration into the national NHS Wales app following trials by Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board and a planned wider rollout mentioned for 2017. The company has also been described as the preferred personal health record for London. The platform has been reported as being used in more than 60 hospitals across the United Kingdom and several overseas markets, with support for 22 languages. Partnerships extend beyond hospitals and government systems. Examples include an integration with Holly Health for transferring blood-pressure and lifestyle information, a relationship with HealthUnlocked involving social prescribing, and collaborations with MyHealthChecked and PocDoc to make home-testing or screening results available through connected records and the NHS App. Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli is identified as co-founder and chief executive officer, while Dr Richard Smith, the former editor associated with the British Medical Journal, is identified as chairman. Publicly available reference material supplied for this dossier does not establish the company's founding year, legal ownership structure, headquarters, financial performance or current executive tenure dates.
History
Patients Know Best developed around the idea that patients should be able to access and control their own medical records. The organisation is described as a British social enterprise rather than simply a hospital software supplier. Its model combines a patient-facing record viewer with infrastructure for receiving, connecting and sharing information across participating healthcare organisations. The principal technical concept is the Single Patient Record. Instead of limiting the record to one hospital or one episode of care, PKB aggregates information associated with a patient across connected sources. Data can arrive through direct API integrations, through links to electronic medical-record systems after registration, or through manual entry in the personal health record. The supplied reference material specifically mentions general-practice record integrations in England and provider-system connections in the Netherlands. The record is designed around patient control. PKB's described ownership model gives the patient control over who may access the record and what information can be shared. Access may be granted explicitly by the patient or inferred in the context of direct care. This governance approach is a defining part of the brand's identity and differentiates its proposition from systems in which records remain primarily organised around an individual provider. PKB expanded its role beyond record viewing through the Population Health Management Engine. This component uses information from the Single Patient Record to provide explanations and useful prompts inside the patient-facing environment. Examples include matching patients with relevant clinical trials and supporting medication optimisation. The available sources do not establish the precise algorithms, regulatory classifications or measured outcomes of these features. The organisation's work has included national and regional digital-health programmes. In England, PKB personal health record functionality was integrated with the NHS App. In Wales, the platform was associated with trials by Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board and a proposed rollout across Wales in 2017, as well as integration with the NHS Wales app. In the Netherlands, PKB was linked with the national personal health record infrastructure known as PGO. The company was also described as the preferred personal health record for London and as supporting a Single Patient Record initiative for Lagos State in Nigeria. International use has been reported across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Hong Kong, the United States and the Netherlands, with the service described as operating in more than 60 hospitals and in 22 languages. PKB has also connected with consumer and community-health services. Holly Health was associated with transferring coaching, blood-pressure and lifestyle data into patient records. HealthUnlocked was linked with social prescribing. MyHealthChecked and PocDoc were cited as examples of partnerships intended to surface home-testing or screening results in the NHS App-connected record environment. Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli is identified as co-founder and chief executive officer, and Dr Richard Smith is identified as chairman. The supplied sources do not provide a reliable founding date, headquarters, ownership details, revenue figures or a complete chronology of executive appointments. Those fields therefore remain unresolved.
- 2017
Planned wider rollout in Wales
[1]Following trials by Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board, the personal health record service was described as planned for wider rollout across Wales.
Integration with the NHS App
[1]PKB personal health record functionality became available through integration with the NHS App.
Expansion into government-scale health-record programmes
[1]The company was described as supporting personal health record infrastructure in the Netherlands and a Single Patient Record initiative for Lagos State.
Products and positioning
A patient-controlled health-information and interoperability platform for healthcare providers, governments and patients, built around longitudinal records, consent-based sharing and access through national or institutional digital-health services.
Longitudinal health record infrastructure
Single Patient Record
PKB's core architecture brings together information about an individual from participating providers, partners and user-entered sources. It is designed to provide a longitudinal view rather than a record restricted to one organisation. Data may be received through APIs, electronic-record integrations or manual entry, subject to the platform's patient-centred access and consent model.
Patient-facing digital health application
Personal Health Record viewer
The Personal Health Record viewer gives patients access to information held in their Single Patient Record. It supports viewing, sharing and, where permitted, adding health information. The service has been connected with national and institutional digital-health channels, including the NHS App and the NHS Wales app.
Population health and clinical-information software
Population Health Management Engine
The Population Health Management Engine uses information from the Single Patient Record to provide explanations and patient-facing insights through the personal health record. The supplied examples include matching patients with clinical trials and helping support medication optimisation.
Brand decisions
- Adoption of a patient-controlled record modelStrategy
Background
PKB positioned its service around the principle that patients should own or control their records and decide which people or organisations can access them.
Action taken
The company built its Single Patient Record and Personal Health Record viewer around explicit patient sharing controls, with implicit access described for direct-care relationships.
Aftermath
The model became the foundation for integrations with healthcare providers, national applications and government-scale personal health record programmes.
- Development of the Population Health Management EngineProduct launch
Background
A record-access service can provide information without necessarily explaining its relevance to a patient or care pathway.
Action taken
PKB developed a Population Health Management Engine that uses Single Patient Record data to generate explanations and support functions such as clinical-trial matching and medication optimisation.
Aftermath
The platform's proposition expanded from personal record access toward patient-facing population-health and care-coordination capabilities.
Recent events
Integration of PKB personal health records with the NHS App[1]
Product launch · Other
Patients Know Best's personal health record service was integrated into the NHS App, enabling users to access connected health information through a national digital-health channel.
Expansion of personal health record infrastructure in the Netherlands[1]
Other
PKB was described as integrating with the Netherlands' personal health record infrastructure, persoonlijke gezondheidsomgeving, alongside provider connections.
Lagos State Single Patient Record initiative[1]
Other
The company was reported as working on a Single Patient Record for Lagos State, described in the reference material as covering the state's approximately 20 million residents.
PKB partnership with Holly Health[1]
Other
The integration was intended to allow Holly Health coaching data, including blood-pressure and lifestyle information, to move into patients' PKB records.
PKB collaboration with HealthUnlocked[1]
Other
PKB and HealthUnlocked were described as integrating social-prescribing capabilities to support more personalised and comprehensive care plans.
MyHealthChecked partnership for home-test results[1]
Other
MyHealthChecked announced a partnership intended to let customers access laboratory results from at-home blood and DNA tests through the NHS App via PKB integration.
PocDoc integration for Healthy Heart Check results[1]
Other
The PocDoc Healthy Heart Check integration was described as allowing users to view and share screening results and related information through the NHS App-connected PKB environment.
Sources1 sources
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