The Information for Health Strategy introduced the concept of a comprehensive 'cradle to grave' Electronic Health Record (EHR) for every citizen. This record will contain demographic information about the individual as well as details of any contacts that they have had with a healthcare professional in the NHS.

The EHR will provide real-time access, from a desktop PC to relevant and up to date patient information for GPs, Clinicians and other healthcare professionals. The real-time access to the patient's medical history and contacts with other relevant organisations will enable the clinical professional to make a more informed decision about the most appropriate type of care for their patient. It will also remove the problems associated with trawling through manual records and lost records which often results in an incomplete picture.

Each contact with a healthcare professional will result in an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) and each EPR will be stored electronically to form the Electronic Health Record. All electronic records will be stored securely and will be accessible only to authorised personnel.