PKB is built around patient empowerment. Each role supports a trusted, secure, collaborative environment where healthcare professionals, patients, and their carers can work together effectively. With clearly defined roles, PKB ensures transparency, control, and confidence for everyone involved.

Patient – The Owner of the Record

The patient is the central figure in PKB. They have complete control over their health record—who can access it, what can be shared, and when. Patients can:

• Grant or revoke access to professionals and carers.

• Participate in secure messages with their care team.

• Add their own data such as symptoms, measurements, test results, or notes.

• Complete care plans or consultations collaboratively with professionals.

PKB empowers patients to actively engage in their care journey and manage their health data securely.

Team Professional – Clinicians in the Patient’s Care Team

Team professionals are invited by a coordinator and gain access to all patients under that team's care. They can:

• Access any patient record shared with the team.

• Send secure messages and contribute to the patient’s record.

• Add professionals, create/edit care plans, and send questionnaires.

• Communicate with the patient and their carers, as well as team colleagues.

• View data from other organisations and teams.

This mirrors traditional healthcare settings where team members can access shared records for coordinated care.

Individual Professional – Specific Clinicians

An individual professional has access only to the records of patients who specifically add them. This might include:

• A GP added by a specialist team, carer, or the patient.

• Clinicians who are not part of a formal care team but provide individual care.

These professionals can contribute data, view records, and securely message the patient’s network, but access is limited to patients who explicitly grant them access.

Coordinator – PKB Champion

The coordinator is the first person invited to a team and plays a vital role in:

• Invite other professionals to manage the team setup.

• Supporting the adoption of PKB within the team.

• Managing care plan templates and library resources.

• Acting as the go-to for PKB support and training, often working closely with PKB staff.

• The administrator of PKB within the team

Coordinators are typically tech-savvy, helping colleagues embed PKB into everyday workflows.

Organisation Admin – Technical Oversight

The Organisation Admin manages administrative and data consistency tasks across all teams in the organisation. Their responsibilities include performing three key functions for all patients within all teams in the organisation.

• Adding missing patient demographics.

• Resolving demographic mismatches (e.g. from HL7 lab feeds).

• Overseeing the structure and health of the organisation’s network within PKB.

Privacy Officer – Data Privacy and Patient Rights

Privacy Officers (POs) in PKB play a regulatory and advisory role, ensuring the organisation’s use of PKB aligns with privacy standards and patient consent.

They are typically senior members of the Information Governance or Data Protection teams or someone acting under their authority.

• Monitoring and Enforcement: Oversee the appropriate use of PKB and respond to issues raised in privacy reports, including Break The Glass (BTG) incidents.

• Disable Sharing Oversight: POs can approve requests to disable the sharing of a patient's record, blocking access by any other user. This action can only occur after:

  • The patient has completed the informed consent process.

  • A qualified Privacy Officer engages with the patient, ideally face-to-face or via phone, to explain how disabling sharing affects continuity of care.

  • The patient understands the implications, including loss of visibility to care teams.

An appointed administrator may perform the actual system change (disabling sharing) only after the PO has approved the request.

• Patient Support and Education:
  POs help patients understand:

  • The organisation's sharing policies.

  • PKB features such as privacy labels, audit logs, and how professionals access their data.

• Engagement Requirement:
  PKB advises that this patient discussion is handled by someone experienced in privacy and confidentiality—not a generic admin role.

• Governance Reporting:
  POs typically receive Break The Glass alerts and may investigate privacy incidents reported either by patients or via standard PKB-generated reports.

In most cases, the Privacy Officer is the Head of Information Governance or Data Protection Officer, ensuring senior accountability and policy adherence.

Carer – Trusted Support

A carer is someone a patient chooses to help manage their health information and who they invite into their record. Carers can:

• Add or manage other carers and professionals on behalf of the patient.

• Enter data and participate in secure communications.

• Use the Events and Messages section with the patient's team.

• View data within the record

This is particularly common in cases where the patient is a child or has limited capacity or technical literacy, although any patient (or a professional acting on their behalf) can add a carer.

Carers log in to their own PKB account and access records of those they care for via the Sharing > Friends and Family section.

Further Information

• Default Privacy for a Team: How to set your privacy settings for each team.