The benefits of the early adopter programme

The early adopter programme is giving GP practices the opportunity to develop digital tools that meet the needs of their patients 

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on NHS Digital

The right digital tools are essential to providing the best patient care. The early adopter programme (EAP) is looking for GP practices to inform, explore and test the new digital systems to make sure they are designed with users in mind. This is an opportunity for GP practices to receive funding to work in partnership with suppliers to make sure new systems are developed to meet the needs of primary care settings and their patients.

The benefits of being an early adopter include that participating practices will:

• collaborate with tech innovation framework suppliers to provide invaluable insights to help shape and build digital systems that work for their practice;
• receive funding, with no obligation to migrate to new clinical system;
• be supported at every stage of the process, including supporting the implementation of any systems.

Support and funding

Whilst some practices may have concerns about participating in the EAP due to the required resource commitment, they will receive support throughout the process to ensure they can contribute to the programme in a way that works for them. 

As an early adopter of a new system, they will be able to access specialist assistance to help embed the new systems into their practice, including advice, support, guidance and an accessible toolkit of resources. Funding and support are also available at each stage of the early adopter journey, including:

• discovery;
• change planning;
• implementation and migration;
• post-migration.

Practices joining the early adopter programme during the discovery phase are not obligated to make any changes, or move to the next phase. To qualify for funding, practices will need the support of their integrated care service.