Using content types to transform the NHS website/in /by

How do you make sure all content is user-centred, accessible, safe and accurate when your product is one of the largest and most used health websites in the world? Mark Robinson, Senior Content Designer, explains our approach.

Things have changed a lot since the NHS website first launched in 2007. The way we consume content has changed considerably, with new technologies like smartphones, apps and smart assistants.

Helping people think straight about alcohol/in /by

David Evans, content designer for the Register with a GP surgery service, says it’s difficult to get accurate answers about people’s smoking and alcohol consumption – and explains what the team is doing to improve the way people assess their intake.

The Register with a GP surgery service asks patients a variety of questions about themselves as part of the standard registration process, giving practice staff valuable health information from day 1. To enable better care, users are asked lifestyle questions, including those relating to their alcohol intake and smoking habits.

A new way to find patients/in /by

Darren Hickling describes NHS Digital’s role in developing a platform to identify the highest risk COVID-19 patients so they could receive life-saving antiviral treatments.  

As COVID-19 emerged and treatment options were limited, pharmaceutical companies began researching and developing new antibody and antiviral treatments to reduce viral replication or alleviate symptoms in immunocompromised people. 

How to jump into the cloud/in /by

Neil Gibbs, Cloud Engagement Lead at NHS Digital, says we need more NHS organisations to migrate to the cloud and explains what help is available.

The benefits of migrating services from on-premise data centres to the cloud are clear. Cloud hosting is cost-effective, allows for greater speed, agility and scalability of services, improves security and creates more opportunities to adopt innovative solutions.

What we have learned about retiring APIs/in /by

Business analyst Matthew Firth gives an update on what NHS Digital has been doing to progress the API ‘sunsetting’ strategy to retire some of our APIs over the last year. 

Last year we published our blog ‘What happens when we ‘sunset’ our APIs?’ in which Munish Jokhani explained how we actively deprecate (where we advise of our intention to retire the API while retaining all existing service levels) and retire our APIs, and the effect this had on developers. By working with our suppliers and engaging them early in the process, we found that we were able to agree and align the retirement dates so that we met our suppliers’ requirements. 

One giant step for secure data access/in /by

Michael Chapman, Director of Research and Clinical Trials at NHS Digital, talks about our new Secure Data Environment and explains how it is making research into life-saving treatments easier and faster.

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we built the Trusted Research Environment (TRE) service for England to enable researchers from the NHS, government, academia and industry to contribute to our collective response to the disease.

Our TRE service proved invaluable in understanding the impact of COVID-19 and the efficacy of treatments, but it wasn’t scalable or flexible enough for the wider community of researchers who we want to support.

What is public benefit?/in /by

Dr Nicola Byrne, the National Data Guardian, outlines new guidance to support better public benefit evaluations. 

Many of us share a ‘big picture’ vision: better health and care outcomes for everyone through the safe, appropriate and ethical use of data. The NHS can’t accomplish this vision without outside help, however.