Part of National Digital Channels - Platform and Integration Strategy
How we are developing the platform
Here we describe what will be delivered within the NDC platform over the next 1 to 2 years as well as describing the general direction for the national digital channels.
A strategic roadmap has been published as an appendix to the DHSC’s 'A plan for digital health and social care', published June 2022.
Specific channel roadmaps are available through the NHS Digital website:
Each roadmap initiative is explained in greater detail below.
Summary of planned platform developments
The NHS website will:
- improve its syndication service by developing our content APIs and widgets to provide easier access to our modularised content and better meet the needs of third parties
- continue to improve functionality for third-parties to publish additional profile information to end users - for example, opening times or services offered by their local GP surgery, dentist, or pharmacy providers
- relaunch a reusable content tool allowing people to measure their ‘heart age’ (launched December 2022)
- allow accredited third parties access to the publishing platform so that they can make their content available through the NHS website (these plans are currently under review and a further update will follow)
The NHS App will:
- continue to integrate national patient facing services with a focus on primary care digital triage, GP practice registration, access to hospital appointments as well as care plans and personal healthcare records
- enhance messaging and notification capabilities made available to third-party services who integrate into the channel, allowing those health providers the ability to communicate seamlessly with end users at no cost
- promote the ‘Integration in a Box’ resources as part of our NHS App onboarding toolkit, to allow suppliers to integrate with greater independence and speed
- reviewing cross platform third party onboarding to provide a simpler, more consistent experience for suppliers
- develop patient facing GP Connect APIs to facilitate richer GP online functionality available to patients
NHS login will:
- continue to underpin national services, platforms and third-party services, providing a single way for users to verify their identity - we aim to double the number of NHS login integrated services by the end of the 2022/23 financial year
- introduce alternative methods of authentication (non-mobile, for example)
- continue to enhance and evolve identity verification to make the experience easier for patients
- enable direct creation of an individual’s NHS login in offline settings (such as GP practices, hospital clinics)
Personalisation of services:
There will be a collection of capabilities and services that deliver our personalised user experience across the national digital channels. It will, over time, progressively personalise and tailor the online experience.
End users will be provided with an improved logged-in experience with access to digital services and content based on what we know about them. For example, personal demographic data, their GP practice area and personal health circumstances, as well as what they have told us - for example, self-measured health diagnostics such as blood pressure, body mass index and mood.
The evolution of this capability will create the opportunity to offer end users:
- the ability to digitally manage contact details and communication preferences across different providers
- a personalised presentation of services, personal health data and events appropriate to a users wants and needs
- proxy access - allowing trusted individuals to manage access to a range of health services on behalf of other people and allowing users to share with trusted individuals as required
Figure 2: Updated NDC platform architecture
The diagram below shows the expected developments of the NHS App and NHS website channels reflecting an evolved set of platform capabilities across personalisation functionality, platform integrations and specific services, as explained below.
Shaping the future platform
The discovery and delivery activities below will help the NDC platform evolve to meet the needs of our users.
Establishing a standardised assessment method for new service offers to assess which provider services are integrated into the NHS App, their prioritisation and approach for integration. This will help ensure they are aligned to operational and planning priorities, for example online consultation triage and access to public health record data.
Assessing the value of new service integration types designed around the aggregation of services across multiple providers, aimed at lowering the barrier to entry for suppliers.
Assessing the commercial and technical approach to making video consultations available via the NHS App (planned 2023/24).
Standardising third-party integration performance measurement (reporting and measurement) for integrated supplier services to provide better insight into the adoption and use of integrated services.
Improving our existing platform capabilities by delivering our NDC roadmap. This means increasing the capability of the platform by adding new services, as well as improving current capabilities by expanding their national reach and refining their offering through feedback.
Timeline
In the next 6 months…
We will improve the platform's current capabilities by:
- making our new NHS App Messaging and Notifications feature available to more suppliers and local systems
- integrating more primary care online consultation providers to support primary care digital triage
- integrating secondary care providers to allow users to view and manage their hospital appointments
- integrating care plan providers to help users access a real-time view of their care plan across a variety of care settings
- integrating Covid-19 vaccination bookings and notifications into the NHS App (now live)
- building on our ‘integration in a box’ initiative to develop a single service integration and onboarding offer across all of our national patient facing digital channels
In the next 1 to 2 years...
We will design the future state of the platform by:
- developing potential new integration patterns and consult on supporting new service types including video consultations (due 2024)
- building analytics and performance measurement processes for integrated services, in conjunction with technology suppliers and data owners
We will also create new platform capabilities by:
- extending the use of our new NHS App notifications capability into additional settings, saving local systems money and improve reach for their key communications with patients
- creating a way for assured third parties to publish their content on our NHS website channel
- beginning migration to GP Connect patient facing APIs as a gateway for accessing data from GP clinical systems, therein offering improved functionality across existing services
- starting to build out NHS personalisation capabilities and services to support a more personalised experience across our NDCs
Last edited: 11 March 2024 10:51 am