
#CareAboutMe aims to raise widespread awareness of the About Me standard and the improvements it can make to the quality of care administered in health and care, as well as the positive impact it can have on people’s quality of life and health. We want to help every person share information about ‘what matters to me’ by using PRSB’s About Me standard. Our goal is to help professionals provide better care and for people to experience lasting benefits to their health and wellbeing.
People talking About Me
About Me at Oxleas Care
What is About Me?
The About Me standard helps people share information about what is most important to them with health and care professionals so that staff can provide better, more person-centred care whenever and wherever it is needed.
What sort of things are shared?
About Me information may include things like how best to communicate with the person, put them at ease during treatment, their spiritual or religious beliefs, or what arrangements to make for family or pets if they are hospitalised.

We want to hear from you about your experience using the About Me standard and the difference it has made to your care or the care you provide for others. The About Me standard is important for people, professionals and system suppliers. Learn more about the standard and find out what people have to say About Me.

Dr Henrietta Hughes
Patient Safety Commissioner, Department of Health and Social Care
"As the Patient Safety Commissioner, I champion patients' voices regarding patient safety in medicines and medical devices. Patients’ voices are key in #CareAboutMe letting people share key information about their needs, preferences and wishes with the people who need to see it."
Professor The Lord Patel of Bradford OBE
Chair, Independent Healthcare Providers Network
“As the government seeks to improve patient outcomes, recognition of people’s individual preferences, likes and dislikes is increasingly important. The About Me standard provides the structure needed to make this information consistently available in patient record systems across health and care.”
Dr Michael Mulholland
Honorary Secretary, Royal College of General Practitioners
“RCGP endorsed the About Me standard as it enables General Practitioners to efficiently view critical information about patients’ preferences, supporting safer, better quality, and more person-centred care.”
Chris Graham
Group Chief Executive, Picker
“Understanding people’s individual circumstances and care preferences is essential for achieving high-quality person-centred care. The About Me standard provides a standardised structure to enable this information to be recorded in people’s own words, providing consistency across services.”
Dr Adrian James
President, Royal College of Psychiatrists
“A collaborative and person-centred approach is fundamental to good mental health support and care. Access to information about a person’s preferences ahead of a consultation will better enable clinicians to build a rapport with the person they are caring for, support shared decision making, and hopefully lead to better patient outcomes.”
Noeleen Behan
Matron for Outpatients and Community Services, North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust
“Having access to information about what matters to the person you are caring for enhances nursing care. This information can help personalise our appointments, enhancing patient trust and providing a better experience for all.”
Vic Rayner OBE
Chief Executive, National Care Forum
‘When a person arrives from hospital into a care setting, key pieces of information can go missing. About Me allows for a person’s preferences to be digitally transferred to care providers, giving them the confidence that they have all the information they need to deliver person-centred care.’
Dr Nicola Byrne
National Data Guardian, Department of Health and Social Care
"Finding out what matters to people is central to improving health and care services and the About Me standard lets a person record what is important to them so that professionals can offer care that is high quality and meaningful."
Jonathan Papworth
Founding Board Member, Care Software Providers Association (CASPA)
“One of the core CASPA objectives has been to achieve digital information flow across health and social care, and this vision is becoming a reality with the work done by the PRSB. CASPA has promoted the PRSB to their members, with several committed to implementing standards as they evolve. About Me is a standard that has helped crystallise the commonality across social care and health care data and has been built into the eRedBag which is in use by some CASPA members.”
Professor Alf Collins
NHS England's Clinical Director, Personalised Care Group
"The About me standard helps capture of information on what matters most to patients in a standardised format. When fully implemented the standard will help facilitate consistent, personalised care across the UK."
Jo Dickson - Chief Nursing Officer, NHS Digital
"Nursing at its best is person-centred. Knowing a person’s healthcare needs and wishes is better for their care, for their wellbeing and more fulfilling for nurses. ‘About Me’ helps nurses easily get the information they need about someone and will enable them to provide patient centred care."
Erica Crompton
Patient advocate
"The ability to document your preferences and share these with health and care professionals is necessary to feel like an active participant in your own care. The About Me Standard helps people ensure their voice is recognised and respected and helps clinicians better understand those they are caring for."
Dr Shera Chok
Chief Medical Officer, NHS Digital
"Health and Care Professionals are supported to do their jobs by digital access to patient’s records. In addition to medical information, information about a patient’s preferences will help us provide more effective care as knowing a person’s healthcare needs and wishes is better for their care, for their wellbeing and more fulfilling for health and care professionals."
John Farenden
Programme Director - Shared Care Records Programme, NHS England and NHS Improvement
“We included a “What Matters to Me” information block when we built a Proof of concept of a patient-mediated International Patient Summary. When we showed it to an international standards community, they loved the idea and suggested it should be built into the standard. Simple idea with a global impact.”
Prof Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard
Chair, National Academy for Social Prescribing
‘Access to a person's personal preferences and requirements is essential if excellent social prescribing is to happen. To build trust between an individual and the various professionals they interact with, they need to feel listened to and confident that their care is provided in a person-centred way, starting with what really matters to them and then allowing this information to be shared appropriately.
Prof Adam Gordon
Professor of Care of Older People, University of Nottingham School of Medicine
‘Incomplete and duplicate paper records are a problem my colleagues and I encounter every day. I welcome implementation of the About Me standard which will help me view critical information about people’s preferences digitally and quickly so the care I provide is safer, better quality, and more person-centred.’
Charlotte Augst
CEO, National Voices
‘The About Me standard supports documentation of your preferences which can be viewed by the health and care professionals wherever you are receiving care. Implementation of the standard in record systems will give people a greater voice in their care.’
Trishna Bharadia
Patient Advocate
"As someone living with multiple long term conditions, it's always worried me that healthcare providers might not know important details about me if I or my family cannot communicate it to them. That's why I'm supporting the PRSB's About Me Standard. I hope that it will have a direct impact on improving joined-up and quality healthcare for all"
Tara Donnelly
Director of Digital Care Models, NHS England and Improvement
“I’m a huge believer that “what matters to me” is as important in health care as “what’s the matter with me” which is why I support the About Me standard and recommend its take up across the NHS and social care to help provide more personalised care”
Andrew Goddard, President of the Royal College of Physicians
"If we are to ensure that the patient is at the centre of all we do in health it is vital we understand their wishes and what is important to them. Enshrining this information through the 'About me' standard is a critical step in this process."
Helen Balsdon
Head of Digital Nursing Practice and Research
"Knowing what is important to those we are caring for is essential to delivering personalised care."
Katie Thorn – Digital Engagement Manager, Registered Nursing Home Association and Project Lead, Digital Social Care
“Digital access to information about a person’s health and care preferences helps care home staff provide more personalised care that acknowledges resident’s choices and wishes, contributing to improved wellbeing."
Lyn Romeo
Chief Social Worker for England, Department of Health and Social Care
"Standards can help improve information sharing and support health and care professionals to spot early warning signs of deteriorating health, whether at home, in care homed or in other care settings. That should trigger a care planning update and possibly a change or increase in the care someone receives. If we can get that right we could avoid unnecessary or preventable hospital admissions and improve people's health and wellbeing."


TPP enables widespread use
of About Me standard
TPP, one of the world’s leading suppliers of healthcare technology, has updated its core product, SystmOne, to enable implementation of the PRSB’s About Me standard.
More than 265,000 NHS users across all health and social settings will now benefit from the opportunity to capture details of what’s important and what matters to them, allowing for more personalised care. This is a critical step forward in delivering interoperability in health and care.
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