Healthcare providers across the UK are under increasing pressure to deliver more coordinated, efficient and personalised care. Yet for many organisations, clinical and operational data still sit in silos; EHRs, CRM systems, claims platforms, patient portals, and care management tools rarely connect in a way that gives a complete, real-time view of the patient.
This is exactly where Patient 360 and Next-Best-Action (NBA) models are reshaping care management. Together, they help clinicians, care coordinators, and population health teams make decisions that are timely, evidence-based, and tailored to each patient’s needs.
What is Patient 360?
Patient 360 is a unified, longitudinal view of every patient interaction, clinical, social, behavioural and administrative. Instead of navigating multiple systems or incomplete records, care teams get a single source of truth that brings together:
- Medical history, diagnoses and medications
- Care plans, risk scores and previous interventions
- SDoH insights such as housing, employment or lifestyle risks
- Interactions across primary care, acute care, virtual care and community services
- Engagement data from digital channels such as portals, emails and apps
This consolidated view helps teams understand where a patient is today and what needs attention next.
Why Patient 360 + Next-Best-Action matter now
The NHS is under sustained pressure: rising demand, workforce constraints and the need to deliver personalised care at scale. Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are explicitly charged with joining up services and improving population health, a mandate that depends on sharing trusted patient data across organisational boundaries. A comprehensive Patient 360 view removes information silos and enables coordinated pathways; when combined with Next-Best-Action decisioning, it helps teams act decisively at the point of care.
Recent NHS programmes (including federated data platforms and condition-specific “360” tools) show the practical value of unified patient records for pathway optimisation and timeliness of care. Those programmes also highlight the crucial interplay between technical standards, governance and frontline adoption, factors that make-or-break real-world impact.
What Is Next-Best-Action (NBA)?
Next-Best-Action uses data, analytics and machine learning to guide care teams on the most appropriate step to take for each patient. These recommendations can relate to:
- Preventative screenings
- Medication adjustments
- Appointment scheduling
- Care plan updates
- Outreach or follow-up
- Lifestyle or behavioural interventions
NBA insights can be surfaced directly inside CRM or care management platforms, ensuring care teams don’t have to switch systems or interpret complex datasets.
How Patient 360 + NBA Work Together
When both capabilities are combined, providers gain a powerful closed-loop care management model:
- Patient data is unified into a 360-degree profile
- AI models analyse health risks, gaps in care and engagement patterns
- NBA suggests the right action for the care team or patient
- The action is recorded back into the Patient 360 record, improving future recommendations
This creates a continuous feedback cycle where every interaction refines the accuracy of future decisions.
Use Cases in UK Care Management
1. Chronic Disease Management
Conditions such as diabetes, COPD and heart failure require close monitoring.
Patient 360 brings all relevant data together, while NBA prompts care teams to:
- Schedule overdue HbA1c tests
- Adjust medication adherence plans
- Trigger digital coaching interventions
- Escalate patients showing early signs of deterioration
2. Reducing Unplanned Admissions
By combining historical data with real-time indicators, the NBA highlights patients at rising risk, guiding early outreach before conditions worsen.
3. Personalised Preventive Care
With a complete patient profile, ICS and provider networks can proactively encourage screenings or lifestyle programmes tailored to individual risk profiles.
4. Better Coordination Across Settings
Community nurses, primary care teams, hospital specialists and social care teams all access the same consolidated view, eliminating blind spots.
Role of CRM & Customer Platforms
Modern CRM platforms, such as Salesforce Health Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics or industry-specific patient engagement systems, play a central role in enabling Patient 360 and NBA.
They provide:
- A unified interaction layer for care teams
- Configurable workflows for referrals, care plans and follow-ups
- Integration with EHR, PAS, and community systems
- Real-time data connectors and consent management
- Automation and outreach tools for digital engagement
This helps providers shift from reactive service delivery to proactive, patient-centred care.
Business Impact for Healthcare Organisations
Implementing Patient 360 + NBA supports measurable improvements:
- Higher care plan adherence
- Reduced administrative burden
- Lower avoidable admissions
- Improved clinical outcomes
- More consistent patient experience
- Better utilisation of stretched workforce capacity
For leaders prioritising digital maturity and operational efficiency, this combination delivers both immediate and long-term value.
Implementing in the UK: governance, procurement & vendor criteria Governance & data protection
Any Patient 360 + NBA project must follow GDPR and NHS data-sharing standards (consent models, Data Access Request Service where needed). Put clinical safety and privacy at the centre: DPIAs, role-based access, and Data Processing Agreements with vendors are mandatory.
Procurement: Use established public frameworks (including G-Cloud and NHS procurement routes) and require evidence of NHS interoperability (FHIR compatibility), UK-based or EU-adequate data handling, and clinical safety cases. Key vendor evaluation criteria: interoperability, explainability of models, clinical governance support, auditability, and a clear implementation roadmap.
Clinical safety & explainability: Demand clinical evaluation plans, phased pilots, and independent validation (NICE or local evaluation) before scale-up.
Benefits & measurable outcomes (KPIs)
Trackable KPIs include:
- Readmission rates (30-day), verify baseline.
- Time to first community follow-up post-discharge.
- Medication reconciliation completion rate.
- Clinician time saved (hours per week).
- Patient experience / PROMs.
Note: any percentage improvement should be verified with local baseline data or peer evaluations before publication. (Mark numbers for verification where used.)
Practical roadmap/checklist for NHS/ICS leaders
- Readiness assessment: map data sources, gaps, and governance boundaries.
- Define clinical use cases with measurable outcomes.
- Choose technical approach: FHIR-based Patient 360 + rules/ML hybrid NBA.
- Pilot (3–6 months): limit to a single pathway and measure KPIs.
- Governance: DPIA, DPA, clinical safety case and patient/public involvement.
- Scale: iterate, evaluate, and integrate into procurement for wider roll-out.
Embed clinician champions and a data-ethics review at each stage.
Conclusion & next steps
A standards-based Patient 360, plus a transparent, clinically governed next-best-action engine, can materially improve care coordination across ICSs. Start with targeted pilots, embed governance and clinician co-design, and measure rigorously before scaling. Contact your ICS digital lead to begin a readiness assessment. check out our Healthcare industry solutions
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