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Personal Child Health Record

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A Personal Child Health Record or PCHR is a form of personal health record of the United Kingdom that records a child's growth, development, and use of health services.

Paper-based record

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The front cover of a book, with a solid red background and the words 'PERSONAL CHILD HEALTH RECORD' in gold serif justified typeface on alternating lines. A small blue circular sticker is present in the bottom right.
Front cover of a PCHR from the late 1990s.

The paper based child health record as used by the UK National Health Service[1] is popularly known as the "Red Book." It is given to the parents on or just after the birth of their child, and is used by parents to record standard health details such as height and weight as well as developmental milestones such as first words and first time walking.[2] As the record has matured, additional information has been added in the form of inserts to aid parents with certain medical conditions, such as Down syndrome.[3] There are also sections that are typically completed by the child's GP or health visitor.

There are also additional updates from organisations such as the World Health Organization for growth chart updates [4][5]

The Scottish National Personal Child Health Record is available for download if you have a child born before January 2010.[6] The UK-WHO Growth Charts are also available for download.[7] EEPDwiki has links to more resources and examples of UK hand-held child health records.

A number of other countries have similar paper-based systems for sharing information between health professionals and parents.[8] The Japanese introduced a maternal and child paper record (Boshi techo) in 1947 with the aim of reducing perinatal mortality.[9] The current form of Mother Child Health Handbook (Boshi kenko techo) was introduced in 1966 and has been adapted for use in at least 20 countries worldwide.[10]

Electronic record

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NHS Digital and NHS England, under their National Events Management Service, now allow parents and NHS staff to securely receive information about a child’s health digitally. The service is being adopted by NHS organisations nationally to help further progress the availability of a digital Red Book for new parents.[11]

A couple of tech companies are offering these NHS-linked smart digital versions of the Red Book. The user can use these mobile and desktop apps to connect to their NHS accounts and carry out a slew of GP-related tasks with just a few clicks. These apps also offer services like child health monitoring, growth milestone tracking, dental health trackers, appointment bookings, prescription ordering and jab reminders.

The health records are synced with the NHS data in real-time, eliminating the cumbersome need to store and safeguard reports, prescriptions, and other documents.

The fast-growing tech space has innovative solutions from key players like Nurturey (under the product name PinkBook), Sitekit,[12] and some other emerging companies.

References

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  1. ^ "Your baby's health and development reviews". www.nhs.uk. 21 December 2017.
  2. ^ Walton, Suzanne; Bedford, Helen; Dezateux, Carol; Millennium Cohort Study Child Health Group (2006). "Use of personal child health records in the UK: Findings from the millennium cohort study". BMJ. 332 (7536): 269–270. doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7536.269. PMC 1360395. PMID 16455721.
  3. ^ "PCHR Insert for babies born with Down syndrome - Publications - DSMIG UK". dsmig.org.uk. Archived from the original on 24 November 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2009.
  4. ^ "UK-WHO growth charts, 0-18 years". rcpch.ac.uk.
  5. ^ UK adopts new growth charts based on breastfed babies[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ "Health for all Children". healthforallchildren.co.uk.
  7. ^ "UK-WHO growth charts, 0-18 years". rcpch.ac.uk.
  8. ^ Hall, David M. B.; Hill, Peter; Elliman, David (1994). The Child Surveillance Handbook. Radcliffe. ISBN 9781870905244.
  9. ^ Takayanagi, K; Iwasaki, S; Yoshinaka, Y (January–March 1993). "The role of the Maternal and Child Health Handbook system in reducing perinatal mortality in Japan". Clinical Performance and Quality Health Care. 1 (1): 29–33. PMID 10135606.
  10. ^ Nakamura, Yasuhide (July–August 2010). "Maternal and child health handbook in Japan" (PDF). JMAJ. 53 (4): 259–265. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  11. ^ "NHS launches new service that hopes to make parents' Red Book digital". diginomica. 16 April 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  12. ^ "Digital Redbook pilot toolkit". NHS Digital. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
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