NHS Digital

This is the 2020 entries from our transformation blog, showing the best of digital and data technology from NHS Digital, NHS England, and NHSX.

2020 digital transformation blogs

This is from our transformation blog, showing the best of digital and data technology from NHS Digital, NHS England, and NHSX.

A nurse checks out additional information on a patient's Summary Care Record.

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

Senior 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 Director, NHS England

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

Graphic demonstrating that you can access the NHS login via the website or an app.

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 Security Consultant Rosie Underwood sits at her desk

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

Call handler Freddie Irvin is at his desk taking calls for the NHS 111 service in Norfolk

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.

Photo of Simon Dyson in front of his computer at home.

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

Photo of Tahmina Rokib, Clinical Lead for Digital Medicines at NHS Digital, in a pharmacy

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,

Head and shoulders picture of John Noble who leads on cyber security on the NHS Digital board

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,

Lucy Ha sitting in front of her computer at home.

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

Photo of a person's arm as they donating blood.

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,

A care worker shows information on a smartphone to a person with learning disabilities

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

Photo of Nikki Jeffery sitting in front of her computer

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

Image of person speaking to GP on a smart phone screen.

Launching online consultations in the NHS App during COVID-19

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

Desktop screen showing yellow coronavirus banner at the top of a webpage.

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

Drawing of yellow computer folders connected by lines of data.

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

Photo of digital midwives Lorri Allport and Petra Maclening in uniform sitting in an office.

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

A screen shot of the NHS coronavirus text alert

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,

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

Coronavirus information on a Google knowledge panel

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

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,

An image of a chatbot and modularised content

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

An image of a brain with computer leads representing artificial intelligence

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 (until 31 January 2022),

NHS Digital cyber security apprentice Peter Robinson

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,

Pharmacist Paul Rolfe at work using the Real Time Exemption Checking system

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

A man wearing an NHS rainbow lanyard using a phone to access online services

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

Senior Content Designer, NHS.UK,

Yellow envelope covered by a blue security lock (line art) on a blue background

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,