NHS Digital

The place for doctors, informaticians, developers, designers, researchers, healthcare leaders and others working to improve the National Health Service's and social care system’s use of data and digital technology to share their ideas and experiences. Published by NHS Digital, NHS England and NHSX.

NHS Digital

NHS Digital Transformation Blog

A space to share insights and experiences for everybody working to improve the NHS and social care system’s use of data and digital technology. Published by NHS Digital, NHS England and NHSX.

NHS App messaging - a better way to talk to patients

Harry Etherington, Product Delivery Officer, explains how we’re opening up the use of NHS App messaging to more health and care services, to better satisfy the growing appetite of users to receive their communications digitally.

Harry Etherington

Product Delivery Officer, NHS Digital

The importance of good cyber security during a pandemic

Toby Griffiths, Head of Innovation and Delivery for NHS Digital's Data Security Centre, discusses how we have tackled cyber security issues and how we are addressing 'security debt' brought about by the pandemic.

Toby Griffiths

Head of Innovation and Delivery, NHS Digital's Data Security Centre

Making health tech safe for patients

On World Patient Safety Day, Dr Mona Johnson, Deputy Clinical Director of Patient Safety at NHS Digital and a practicing GP, explains how NHS Digital systems and services keep people safe.

Mona Johnson

Deputy Clinical Director of Patient Safety, NHS Digital

What's behind a simple letter?

David Ibbotson, Operations Director for the Vaccine Programme at NHS South, Central and West (SCW), a key partner in the NHS-wide vaccination programme, shares what he has learnt about what is required to deliver a ‘simple’ letter inviting someone for a jab.

David Ibbotson

Operations Director for the Vaccine Programme, NHS South, Central and West

Designing out the need for training in a staff-facing app

Jason Hodge, Lead Service Designer for the national booking service, looks at how they had to quickly design an app that COVID-19 vaccination site staff could easily and effectively use to check in the hundreds of people arriving daily to get their jab.

Jason Hodge

Lead Service Designer, NHS Digital

How a virtual work placement opened my eyes

Emma Clark, who is studying to become a junior doctor, describes what she learned during her virtual work placement at NHS Digital and how it has given her a completely new perspective on the NHS.

Emma Clark

The rise of the clinical informatician

Dr Raj Kumar, our Chief Clinician for Informatics, explains his role at NHS Digital and how it’s made him a better doctor, how clinical informatics has developed in the NHS, and gives advice to those looking to enter the field.

Raj Kumar

Chief Clinician for Informatics, NHS Digital

From the frontline: Seeing the patient in the data

Victoria Wray is the Advanced Analytics Clinical lead at Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust. She discusses how they developed a data visualisation tool that helped clinicians to provide more effective treatments for their patients suffering from mental health issues.

Victoria Wray

Advanced Analytics Clinical Lead, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Making digital mental health services better: a nurse's view

People are increasingly turning to digital services to get help for urgent mental health problems. Jane Smith, learning disability nurse and clinical lead for NHS 111 online, describes how the team have improved the service and how her role as a nurse helped make it happen.

Jane Smith

Clinical Lead, NHS Digital

Behind the scenes at COVID-19 vaccination centres

The national booking service is helping millions of people schedule their life-saving COVID-19 vaccinations. James Higgott, Lead Product Manager, gives an insider’s view on how we created the staff-facing products that make up this service and solved some teething problems along the way.

James Higgott

Lead Product Manager, NHS Digital

From the frontline: What do the people want?

Connected Nottinghamshire won Health Tech Team of the Year at the HTN Awards 2020. Alexis Farrow, Head of Strategy and Transformation for the programme, explains how her team set out to understand what digital solution would best support the wide spectrum of health and care needs for the people in Nottinghamshire. She found that solution in the NHS App.

Alexis Farrow

Head of Strategy and Transformation, Connected Nottinghamshire

Overcoming digital barriers in the nursing profession

Sue Clarke, Clinical Lead at NHS Digital, and registered nurse, says good communication is still at the heart of bringing about the digital transformation of the nursing profession.

Sue Clarke

Clinical Lead, NHS Digital

How is additional information in Summary Care Records being used?

As the coronavirus hit us in March, the Government made a significant change to the sharing of patient information for those working on the frontline in the NHS. Tamara Farrar, a user researcher at NHS Digital, looked at what that extra information meant for professionals in a wide range of different health and care settings.

Tamara Farrar

User Researcher, NHS Digital

How the NHS App is upping its game

Susie Day, Programme Head for the NHS App, explains how new features help support patients and clinicians to meet an increasing need for remote access to services during the pandemic and how they will improve healthcare after the current crisis.

Susie Day

Programme Head, NHS App, NHS Digital

Demystifying the integration process for the NHS App

James Reith, Content Designer for the NHS App, explains how the NHS App integration team have improved their integration process to make it easier for partner services to innovate.

James Reith

Content Designer, NHS Digital

NHS login: Coping with the large-scale adoption of digital health services

Richard McStay, Lead Delivery Manager, explains how the NHS login team is making it easier for more people to register.

Richard McStay

NHS login Lead Delivery Manager, NHS Digital

Cyber with Rosie

Rosie Underwood, Cyber Security Consultant in NHS Digital’s Data Security Centre, talks about her role in strengthening the security of organisations across the NHS in support of Cyber Security Awareness month.

Rosie Underwood

Cyber Security Consultant, NHS Digital

From the frontline: Good systems save lives

On #StartAHeart day, Freddie Ivin, a call handler for the NHS 111 service in Norfolk, explains the vital training role NHS Digital plays in helping call handlers deal with CPR calls, and Gina Gill describes the impact of a call she received about a man who had stopped breathing in her role as a NHS 111 Health Advisor for the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

The importance of data in fighting disease during the pandemic

Clinical data is acutely private and confidential, and patients rightly demand that it is handled with great care. Sarah Wilkinson, Chief Executive of NHS Digital, explains more.

Sarah Wilkinson

How to cut your risks of a human-operated ransomware attack

Many ransomware attacks are not fully automated but involve individuals gaining access, moving around your system and then deploying malware. Simon Dyson, NHS Digital’s Cyber Security Operations Centre lead, discusses how organisations can make it hard for them.

Simon Dyson

Lead, Cyber Security Operations Centre, NHS Digital

Improving the information flow between pharmacies and GPs

Tahmina Rokib, Clinical Lead for Digital Medicines at NHS Digital, talks about how electronic notifications giving details of urgent medication issued by community pharmacies, keep GPs fully informed and patients’ records up-to-date.

Tahmina Rokib

Clinical Lead, Digital Medicines at NHS Digital,

Effective cyber security has never mattered so much

John Noble, the non-executive director who leads on information and cyber security for the NHS Digital Board, looks at the cyber threat facing the NHS as it deals with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

John Noble

Non-executive director on the NHS Digital Board,

Building great digital services during a crisis

Lucy Ha, Product and Delivery Management Graduate, explains how the NHS digital service manual is helping organisations quickly build accessible, consistent digital products and services needed to respond to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Lucy Ha

Product and Delivery Management Graduate, NHS Digital

How we’re supporting COVID-19 convalescent plasma trials

NHS Blood and Transplant is investigating the effectiveness of treating coronavirus patients with plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19. Heather Pinches, Head of the Clinical Trials Service at NHS Digital, explains how we’re helping with this effort.

Heather Pinches

Head of Clinical Trials Service, NHS Digital

Closing the healthcare gap for people with learning disabilities

Providing easy read materials, longer appointments or other adjustments for people with learning disabilities or long-term conditions can make a big difference in providing quality care. Stephen Robinson, Project Manager at NHS Digital for the Reasonable Adjustment Flag, explains the impact this flag will have for patients and how tailoring support to individuals will help close the healthcare gap between outcomes for those with and without disabilities.

Steve Robinson

Senior Project Manager in Integration Projects, NHS Digital

Teams helping bridge the gap

Social distancing has radically changed the way we can work together during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Nikki Jeffery, Urology Fellow at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, describes how using collaboration software has helped link people up.

Nikki Jeffery

Urologist, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Launching online consultations in the NHS App during COVID-19

Managing our health at home is more important than ever during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, so we have introduced new features in the NHS App to help. Tracy Higgs, Product Lead for online consultations in the NHS App, explains how her team has made asking a GP for advice through the app available for almost 20 million people.

Tracy Higgs

Product Lead, NHS Digital

Why are we centralising GP data to support research during the pandemic?

We are working with the GP profession to establish a central collection of GP data for vital planning and research to support the coronavirus (COVID-19) response. Dr Peter Short, Clinical Lead GP Data at NHS Digital, explains the new approach.

Peter Short

Clinical Lead, GP Data, NHS Digital

Ensuring COVID-19 website content is current

Product Manager Rachel Gibson talks about how her team had to move quickly to ensure people who were manually copying coronavirus (COVID-19) content from the NHS website were getting the most up-to-date information in the swiftly evolving circumstances of the pandemic.

Rachel Gibson

Product Manager, NHS Digital

Birth in a time of solitude

Specialist midwife for IT Lorri Allport, looks at how technology has helped support women through pregnancy, birth and post-natal care in rural Lincolnshire during the pandemic.

Lorri Allport

Specialist Midwife for IT, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust

How should service design react to COVID-19?

Service designers have had to react quickly to the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, but despite the pressure it's a time to still get the basics right according to Dean Vipond, Lead Designer on the NHS website.

Dean Vipond

Lead Designer,

How we are assessing COVID-19 apps

The NHS and innovators are working to develop new mobile products and digital technologies that can help in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

RJ LH IJ

Creating the COVID-19 text service for vulnerable people

A small group from NHSX, NHS Digital, NHS Business Services Authority and the Behavioural Insights Team has developed a text service for those most threatened by COVID-19.

Isaac Smith

Lead Technical Architect at NHSX,

Modularised content: Google knowledge panels

NHS Digital Product manager James Lumgair talks about how the NHS website is getting trusted, accurate health information in front of more users than ever before through 'knowledge panels' on Google search result pages.

James Lumgair

Product Manager, NHS Digital

Data saves lives

Tom Foley, Senior Clinical Lead for Data at NHS Digital, writes about the power of data in health and social care.

Tom Foley

Senior Clinical Lead for Data, NHS Digital

How I learned to code

In the run-up to International Women’s Day, cyber security graduate Lianne Potter describes how she retrained to become a coder after redundancy and is now protecting the NHS from cyber threats.

Lianne Potter

Cyber Security Graduate, NHS Digital,

Modularised content: What's next?

NHS Digital Product Manager James Lumgair gives an update on the project to make specific sections of content on the NHS website available to syndicators, so more people can get accurate, NHS-assured information wherever and however they need it.

James Lumgair

Product Manager, NHS Digital

Regulating AI in health and care

Matthew Gould, CEO of NHSX, explains why he convened a round-table of regulators to talk AI, and what the plan is.

Matthew Gould

Chief Executive Officer, NHSX,

My cyber security journey

NHS Digital's Peter Robinson takes us through his journey from apprentice to professional within the Cyber Security team.

Peter Robinson

Cyber Security Advisor, NHS Digital,

From the front line: Pharmacy exemption checking

The Real Time Exemption Checking service automatically tells pharmacy systems when someone is exempt from paying for their prescriptions. Pharmacist Paul Rolfe looks at how Real Time Exemption Checking is improving dispensing for patients and pharmacy staff.

Paul Rolfe

Pharmacist,

Ten years fighting for a single language

SNOMED CT is the clinical vocabulary for electronic patient health records across the NHS. Denise Downs, Principal Terminology Specialist, talks about the ‘major stock take’ that the implementation of SNOMED CT across general practice involved and how she gained the support of clinicians.

Denise Downs

Principal Terminology Specialist, NHS Digital,

Creating an integration toolkit for NHS login

Rebecca Jarratt, lead delivery manager for NHS login partner onboarding, explains how the NHS login team worked with organisations to develop a self-service toolkit that supports them to adopt NHS login – while ensuring the team maintains control over the integration process.

Rebecca Jarratt

Lead Delivery Manager, NHS Digital

Making digital services more inclusive

The NHS digital service manual helps teams make their services more respectful and inclusive. But it’s not always easy to get it right as Sara Wilcox, the content designer on the team, explains.

Sara Wilcox

Content Designer, NHS Digital,

Does cyber security have to be painful?

Dan Jeffery, Head of Innovation, Delivery and Business Operations at NHS Digital’s Data Security Centre, explains how automation within NHSmail is delivering improved cyber security.

Dan Jeffery

Head of Innovation, Delivery & Business Operations,

How TV gets cyber wrong

Hackers and cyber attacks feature in many films and television programmes, but are these portrayals accurate? Hecham Mrabet, cyber security specialist at NHS Digital, gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how a cyber security centre runs in real life.

Hecham Mrabet

Senior Security Specialist, NHS Digital,

How to write good questions

The NHS digital service manual team has published new forms guidance that will help digital health teams design better forms and transactional services.

Sara Wilcox

Content Designer, NHS Digital,

Is cyber a man's world?

Cyber security still has an out-dated image of being a masculine profession. Charlotte Roe, Cyber Security Apprentice at NHS Digital, talks about her job and why women are needed in the world of cyber.

Charlotte Roe

Apprentice, NHS Digital,

What do innovators think?

When NHSX launched in July, it committed to serving users’ needs and creating an environment that nurtures innovation. Lisa Hollins, Director of Innovation Delivery at NHSX, talks about what innovators are telling her should be the system’s top priorities.

Lisa Hollins

Director of Innovation Delivery at NHSX,

Why is there an 8am rush on the NHS App?

Josh Dresner, User Researcher, has been digging deep into users' experience of the NHS App. He has found some GP practices using the app to transform access to services, while others are still stuck in old ways.

Josh Dresner

User researcher,

View from the frontline: Dealing with mental health as a paramedic

The next phase of the National Record Locator launches soon, allowing ambulance trusts to access mental health information at the point of care. Business analyst and former paramedic Philip Radford talks about what this means for people on the frontline.

Phil Radford

Higher business analyst, National Record Locator Programme,

How we're improving cyber security

As we kick off Cyber Security Awareness Month, NHS Digital’s Interim Chief Information Security Officer Dan Pearce explains how NHS cyber security has been strengthened over the past two years.

Dan Pearce

Interim Chief Information Security Officer, NHS Digital

Welcoming new health data research hubs

Research partnerships can save and improve lives as long as they are underpinned by robust and ethical frameworks.

The NHS digital service manual needs you

Ben Cullimore, a senior interaction designer at NHS.UK, explains how we’re developing a collaborative approach to building the service manual

Ben Cullimore

Citizen Identity – the evolution of username password security

How do we give the public secure access to their healthcare data and NHS services? Lead Delivery Manager Richard McStay talks about NHS login and the NHS Digital Citizen Identity team’s work to ensure people can prove their identity when signing up for online services.

Richard McStay

NHS login Lead Delivery Manager, NHS Digital

Widening digital inclusion

How can we all learn to fail well? This is the question asked by Nicola Gill, Digital Programme Lead at NHS Digital, who has been working in partnership with Good Things Foundation charity to support the most excluded in society with accessing digital health services and tools.

Nicola Gill

Modularised content: The future of the NHS website

Content modularisation of the NHS website will help our content reach more people via search engines, voice-activated devices, chatbots and wearable devices. NHS Digital Product Manager James Lumgair explains more.

James Lumgair

Product Manager, NHS Digital

Making digital services accessible

Ian Roddis, Lead Product Manager for the NHS digital service manual, talks about the new guidelines his team has developed to help people working in digital delivery teams meet accessibility standards in time for September 2020’s deadline.

Ian Roddis

Lead Product Manager, NHS Digital

How we are talking to Alexa

The NHS website team has worked with Amazon’s Alexa team to offer health information by voice search. Eva Lake, Head of Engagement for the website, explains how the collaboration is working.

Eva Lake

Head of Engagement, NHS.UK,

Read our earlier blogs

Read our earlier blog posts.