New online community launched to support health tech professionals

A new online tech community has been launched by NHS Digital, aimed at supporting those working to integrate systems with national healthcare services.

IT professionals who connect with NHS Digital systems are being invited to join a new online forum to share ideas and solutions more easily.

More than 200 users have already signed up to the new developer community, which aims to create an online space open to anyone wanting to integrate with NHS Digital’s Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) platform.

The API platform provides a set of products and services to make it easier to build and integrate with national systems. These are used by point-of-care and patient-facing applications to talk to back-end applications. Most are NHS Digital-owned but some are owned by third parties. The platform provides a consistent experience for API consumers and producers, helping to make integration easier.

The idea for the developer community came after a survey, carried out by NHS Digital, showed 76% of existing users, consisting of chief technology officers, project managers, business analysts and developers, were in favour of a well-supported, official NHS forum to provide them with the help and support they need.

NHS Digital business analyst Ernest Kissiedu, whose role involves supporting API Management, said: “We realised we could improve the way we do things by providing an open forum to create a sense of community among our API developers.

“We were offering developer support to API Product teams using email, MS Teams, and Slack channels. But every week, we were receiving the same queries relating to the same issues such as getting started on NHS Digital APIs, accessing our path to live environments, and onboarding.

“By answering these questions in an open forum, we realised more people would be able to see the solutions to these problems.

“We want to support our developers by ensuring they have a positive experience and encourage them to use our APIs to develop cost-effective, digital services designed around the needs of our health and care professionals, patients, and the public.”

The developer community is open for anyone to browse or search for answers to queries. Those who set up developer hub accounts will also be able to post and respond to other threads featured on the forum. Feedback can also be left to help contribute to the pilot.

Shan Rahulan, Director of Platforms for Core Services at NHS Digital, added: “I'm really keen to work in the open so that we can bring all the expertise and experience we have across the health and care service together. There are a lot of people outside NHS Digital whose expertise we can harness.

“We want all our users to get involved and for new ones to sign up too, to help shape the future of the developer community by providing feedback on NHS products and services.

“The long-term vision for the community is to make it easier for the health and care system to access support, insight, and knowledge. By creating an open environment, we hope people in the community will come together to help each other and share their experiences.”

/by
Case study: Ensuring new technology improves primary care access

Swan Medical Centre in Birmingham needed to meet rising demand and improve efficiency. They introduced an online consultation system to help manage triage and develop more efficient communications between patients and the practice team. However, the online consultation system has delivered many more benefits than they expected. Read their story.  

 

/by
For information: NHSmail user account management changes

NHSmail made changes to user account management periods on 1 December 2022 following consultation. 

The ‘active’ and ‘inactive’ periods for unused accounts are being reduced from 90 to 30 days. There was no change to application accounts, shared, resource mailboxes or the forensic process. 

For further information on this change please visit the NHSmail support site pages. 

/by
For information: New Apply for Care ID service verifies identity remotely

Apply for Care ID is a simple and secure ID application enabling health and care staff, including students, to verify their identity to access national clinical information systems and data. The app is remotely accessible anytime and provides a time saving alternative to face-to-face registrations. Find out more about the service.

/by
For information: ODS codes for surgical hubs

Unique Organisation Data Service (ODS) codes have been given to 89 ‘Elective Surgical Hubs’ across England. These hubs describe NHS trust operational units that carry out planned care surgery only and have fully ring-fenced facilities and staffing.  

Activity at Elective Surgical Hubs needs to be identified separately from the rest of the trust’s activity at site-level. This is to measure impact and performance. The hubs are searchable by name in the ODS Portal and via the ODS API.  

You can contact Julie.renfrew@nhs.net for more information. 

/by
For information: Tech Innovation Framework early adopters

As part of the Tech Innovation Framework, GP practices are invited to become early adopters of cloud-based clinical IT systems to help ensure they meet the needs of primary care settings.  

The Early Adopters programme is asking for Integrated Care Boards to share this opportunity with any practices who may wish to take part. Funding and support are available. Practices can express interest directly by contacting gpit.techinnovation@nhs.net.  

/by
For information: Make sure you’re prepared for cyber threats

Following recent cyber security attacks, the threat to health and social care remains high. It is essential that you and your suppliers comply with the latest mitigation guidance and supply chain assessment guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre.  

Additionally, you should ensure your local teams are following guidance on strengthening cyber security resilience in response to the situation in Ukraine, and know what actions to take during a heightened cybersecurity threat. 

/by
For information: Cloud support clinics

If you require support with cloud migration, you can talk to a cloud specialist about a range of topics including cloud architecture and application, governance, security and project management, and scoping. Book your 30-minute session.  

/by
NHS website’s heartburn advice viewed once every 13 seconds at Christmas

Heartburn is top of the list for advice on health conditions on the NHS website at Christmas, according to new figures.

Analysis by NHS Digital covering the previous two years found that, apart from information about Covid, the heartburn and acid reflux page was the most commonly viewed health condition during the festive period.

There are an estimated 13,200 visits to the website page during Christmas Day and Boxing Day – equivalent to one view every 13 seconds.

Other popular pages on the NHS website over the festive season include health advice on diarrhoea and vomiting which receives an average of 11,600 visits, and stomach ache which gets an estimated 11,000 visits. There are also an average of 9,300 visits to the page on food poisoning across the 48 hours.

The NHS website, which is managed by NHS Digital, is the UK’s biggest health website with an estimated 27 million visits each week. The site also includes advice on how to stay well in winter which covers getting vaccinations, keeping warm and looking in on vulnerable neighbours and relatives.

Robert Cleary, NHS Digital’s content director for the NHS website, said:

“The NHS website is available every day of the year for anyone who needs it, including during the festive season.

“The site provides information and advice on a wide range of conditions, from heartburn to mental health, in easy-to-understand language.

“Our section on staying well in winter also includes useful tips on how to keep healthy during the colder months.”

The NHS website has over 4,000 pages and provides information about 990 medical conditions as well as other health services, including applying for a free UK Global Health Insurance Card for healthcare cover abroad, finding a GP, and a BMI healthy weight calculator.

The page on heartburn and acid reflux includes advice on symptoms and causes, how to ease the condition, and when you should seek medical advice.

The main symptoms are a burning sensation in the middle of your chest and an unpleasant sour taste in your mouth. Symptoms are often worse after eating, when lying down and when bending over.

The NHS website advises that raising the head end of your bed by 10 to 20cm, so your chest and head are above the level of your waist, can stop stomach acid travelling up towards your throat.

You should speak to a pharmacist for advice if you keep getting heartburn, and they may recommend medicines called antacids or alginates that can help ease your symptoms.

ENDS

/by
Quarter of adults in England are obese, new survey of public health shows: statistical press release 


Around a quarter of adults in England were obese in 2021, according to the latest Health Survey for England.1   

The report also found that around half of adults (49%) drank alcohol at least once a week, and about one in eight (12%) were current cigarette smokers.  

Published by NHS Digital, the Health Survey for England, 2021 reports on the nation’s health and surveyed 5,880 adults about a variety of topics including cigarette smoking, e-cigarette use and alcohol consumption.1  

For most of 2021, interviews were carried out by telephone, rather than in person because of COVID-19 pandemic precautions. As a result of these changes in data collection, findings from 2021 are not directly comparable with those from previous years. 


Obesity: 

Figures for 2021 show that 26% of adults in England were obese2 - with obesity increasing with age from 8% of adults aged 16-24 to 32% of those aged 65-74. 

Obesity prevalence2 was lowest among adults living in the least deprived areas (20%) and highest in the most deprived areas (34%). 

11% of adults who were obese reported that they had received a diagnosis of diabetes from a doctor, compared with 5% of overweight2 adults and 3% of those who were neither overweight nor obese.   

A higher proportion of men were either overweight or obese (69%) compared with women (59%). 

 

Smoking:  

12% of adults were current cigarette smokers. Two-thirds of adults (66%) had never regularly smoked. More men (13%) than women (10%) reported that they currently smoked. 

5% of all adults were defined as current e-cigarette3 users. 

16% of current smokers also currently used e-cigarettes as did 13% of ex-regular smokers, but only 1% of those who had never smoked cigarettes. 

 

Drinking alcohol: 

79% of participants reported that they had drunk alcohol in the last 12 months, and

49% reported that they drank alcohol at least once a week. A higher proportion of men than women drank alcohol. 

Men were more likely than women to drink at increasing or higher risk levels4; 28% of men and 15% of women usually drank more than 14 units of alcohol a week. 

The Health Survey for England is commissioned by NHS Digital and carried out by the National Centre for Social Research in conjunction with UCL, which co-authors the report. 

ENDS   

Read the full report   

Health Survey for England, 2021 

/by