1. National Record Locator Service
Now and Next

2. The NRLS / Agenda NRLS Overview The Concept The Data Model
The Interactions
BETA Scope
Beyond BETA

3. The NRLS / What and Why?
The National Record Locator Service (NRLS) will enable an authorised clinician, care worker and/or administrator, in any health or care setting, to access a patient’s information to support that patient’s direct care
This new national capability will aim to complement local digital initiatives (including shared care records) and enhance the level of digital maturity across Health and Care
Phase 1 aims to demonstrate this capability, testing the concept of cross border interoperability and crucially enabling the power of local shared care records (where they exist) to become woven into the NRLS fabric from the outset
The NRLS will point to care records from across local platforms and national services based upon common APIs for this to be retrieved and provided in a consolidated view
It is expected that organisations will connect to the NRLS using defined standards
NHS Digital intends for the NRLS to be accessible to all localities in 2018, opening up the possibility off achieving the ‘holy grail of interoperability’ in the months and years that follow

4. The NRLS / Aims and Objectives. (
The NRLS / Aims and Objectives* (* to be further explored/agreed as part of beta)
NRLS Aims:
Build a national record index for data providers and consumers
Complement local initiatives, including integrating into existing clinical systems
Provide the underpinning technical capabilities (Digital Interoperability Platform) that will facilitate integrated care
NRLS Objectives:
To provide a national index to support the health AND [social] care system (e.g. store that record exists) in a chronological order
To provide a standardised pointer to the record as stored/listed within the index
To point/locate records of various complexity (e.g. PDF, HTML, FHIR)
To provide cross border interoperability, transparency and real time information for the purposes of direct care

5. The NRLS / Building and Enabling Access
Part 1: National Record Locator Index (NRLI) – building the capability
Part 2: National Record Location Service (NRLS) – enabling the capability
Technical Underpinning Capability
NHS England Strategic Needs
NRLI & NRLS

6. The NRLS / What are we trying to achieve?
As a…
We want to achieve…
And this will be delivered by…
Minimum
A National Record Locator Index (NRLI) – Capability that solely provides a central repository of what records are stored and where. Where possible we will provide a list of end points (hyperlinks)
We want to achieve this by September 2018
Health and Care organisations accessing the NRLI through the Summary Care Record application (SCRa) – owned and maintained by NHS Digital and directly through system integration where possible
A national API will also be available for any consumer to utilise the capability
Maximum
A National Record Locator Service (NRLS) – a capability which provides a mechanism to enable access to static documents in the first instance, followed by more structured records over time
We want to achieve this from September 2018
Accessing the NRLS via:
the SCRa
Shared Care Records
Other ‘master nodes’ as outline in the NHS England Target Architecture
NRLI functionality will be enabled plus the addition of static document retrieval (e.g. PDFs)
NHS Digital is committed to:
Utilise already-existing national assets, including SCRa to facilitate accessible adoption of the NRLS
Set new standards and enable existing standards where they exist
Providing FHIR RESTful interface APIs, aligned with local and national thinking and priorities 6

7. The NRLS
Pointers
Consumers
Providers
NRLS
Read
Write

8. The NRLS / Pointer Data Model
Constrained FHIR Document Reference Id
Version Id
Type
Subject
Author
Custodian
Attachment Content Type
Attachment URL
Attachment Creation

9. The NRLS / Querying for Pointers
Consumers
Providers
NRLS
Read

10. The NRLS / Consumer Organisations
GET DocumentReference
Consumers

11. The NRLS / Maintaining Pointers
Consumers
Providers
NRLS
Write

12. The NRLS / Provider Organisations
POST DocumentReference
PUT DocumentReference
DELETE DocumentReference
Providers

13. The NRLS / BETA Focused Scope
Limited Types on the Document Reference
Record Retrieval is a direct negotiation between Consumers and Providers
Limited number of Consumer and Provider Organisations

14. The NRLS / Beyond BETA More Types on the Document Reference
NHS Digital aim to help facilitate Record Retrieval where National Standards are used
More Consumer and Provider Organisations

15. The NRLS / To Recap The NRLS stores Pointers created by Organisations
The NRLS allows Organisations to search these Pointers
A Pointer is a constrained FHIR DocumentReference
Connection and Authorisation is handle through SSP standards utilising MutualAuth, ASIDs and Interaction IDs
BETA will be released in just a few months
Consumers could retrieve records using Pointer Data
Beyond BETA NHS Digital aim to help facilitate record retrieval where National Standards are used