A history of healthcare computing and advances in clinical information productivity in Southampton, 1980 -2024: essay 6: the “Go Paperless” project in Southampton, 2013-2018
A history of healthcare computing and advances in clinical information productivity in Southampton, 1980 -2024: essay 6: the “Go Paperless” project in Southampton, 2013-2018
Clinical information is the lifeblood of health systems. Paper has been the principal technology of information storage and communication for many centuries. In the UK, the systematic approach to the paper clinical record dates back to the National Insurance Act of 1911 and the work of David Lloyd George.
The focus of the first five essays in this series has been upon the history of the Electronic Patient Record and in particular upon its development at University Hospital Southampton (UHS) from the late 1980s to the early 2020s. This was through a period of remarkable evolution across a range of enabling and previously unknown digital technologies, with no historical design template from which to work.
In 2013, the UK Government mandated a rapid national transition from paper to a digital health information economy. Paper was still the backbone of medical records management and of formal and informal information flows in all hospitals in the UK, and for many practical reasons. All patients still had paper records folders which contained information from many different sources and in many different formats. The stored paper records of many older local citizens dated back to the 1950s.
The national mandate prompted a detailed examination of the huge information flows on paper around the UHS clinical data estate, both in terms of the newly created paper files on a daily basis during elective and emergency clinical activity; and in the huge archival stores. These paper files and their contents required robust classification and sorting, so that they could be mapped onto an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS).
In this essay, I seek to explain the many challenges to the formal classification and digitisation of archival and paper records that were met in Southampton; and the solutions that were devised and adopted to secure a rational, economic and practical process of preparation and transition from paper to digital systems, with their benefits and limitations.
Electronic Patient Record, Electronic Document Management System, National Treatment Function Codes, Speciality Codes, NHS Data Dictionary
University of Southampton
Rew, David
36dcc3ad-2379-4b61-a468-5c623d796887
10 April 2026
Rew, David
36dcc3ad-2379-4b61-a468-5c623d796887
Rew, David
(2026)
A history of healthcare computing and advances in clinical information productivity in Southampton, 1980 -2024: essay 6: the “Go Paperless” project in Southampton, 2013-2018
(Principia Medicinae Digitalis Sotoniensis)
University of Southampton
43pp.
Record type:
Monograph
(Working Paper)
Abstract
Clinical information is the lifeblood of health systems. Paper has been the principal technology of information storage and communication for many centuries. In the UK, the systematic approach to the paper clinical record dates back to the National Insurance Act of 1911 and the work of David Lloyd George.
The focus of the first five essays in this series has been upon the history of the Electronic Patient Record and in particular upon its development at University Hospital Southampton (UHS) from the late 1980s to the early 2020s. This was through a period of remarkable evolution across a range of enabling and previously unknown digital technologies, with no historical design template from which to work.
In 2013, the UK Government mandated a rapid national transition from paper to a digital health information economy. Paper was still the backbone of medical records management and of formal and informal information flows in all hospitals in the UK, and for many practical reasons. All patients still had paper records folders which contained information from many different sources and in many different formats. The stored paper records of many older local citizens dated back to the 1950s.
The national mandate prompted a detailed examination of the huge information flows on paper around the UHS clinical data estate, both in terms of the newly created paper files on a daily basis during elective and emergency clinical activity; and in the huge archival stores. These paper files and their contents required robust classification and sorting, so that they could be mapped onto an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS).
In this essay, I seek to explain the many challenges to the formal classification and digitisation of archival and paper records that were met in Southampton; and the solutions that were devised and adopted to secure a rational, economic and practical process of preparation and transition from paper to digital systems, with their benefits and limitations.
Text
Essay 6 UHS Digital Project D Rew Go Paperless and Document classification 10.04.2026
- Author's Original
More information
Published date: 10 April 2026
Additional Information:
David Anthony Rew MA MChir (Cambridge) FRCS (London)
Consultant General Surgeon, Southampton Hospitals
Clinical Informatics Research Unit
Faculty of Medicine, The University of Southampton
Keywords:
Electronic Patient Record, Electronic Document Management System, National Treatment Function Codes, Speciality Codes, NHS Data Dictionary
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Local EPrints ID: 510702
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/510702
PURE UUID: 5c3fb72e-56b2-4dab-a19d-631d5c5eb7c9
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Date deposited: 17 Apr 2026 16:32
Last modified: 18 Apr 2026 02:05
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