Data Integration Vaccinations
How the NHS Forth Valley eHealth team worked with NES Technology Service to use our API.
Overview
During each vaccination appointment, members of the public have their information recorded in the Turas Vaccination Management tool or their GP IT system. After the appointment, the data is stored in the National Clinical Data Store (NCDS). To help clinicians view the new vaccination record, the Vaccinations API updates different services such as:
- GPIT
- NVSS
- SEER
Background
In 2021, NHS Forth Valley identified a need to enable access to vaccination status information. Responsibility for delivering vaccines to local populations had recently moved from GPs to territorial health boards. As a result, a wide variety of clinicians and frontline patient services required access to this data.
Process
The local team knew that NES Technology Service (NTS) had created an API enabling access to vaccination information via the National Clinical Data Store. Since NHS Forth Valley used an in-house clinical portal system for patient management, integrating the API with the existing system was the logical next step.
As the Clinical Portal was a local system, we were able to move quickly. Through conversations on MS Teams, our FV Portal System Developer linked with NTS to exchange documentation and expertise.
Chi Cham
Clinical Portal eHealth Project Manager at NHS Forth Valley
Impact
In only three weeks, this collaborative approach produced a working integration. The whole process took three months from end to end.
Our software developers worked directly with Forth Valley's developers which eased the integration of our two different systems. It was very encouraging to see the entire process go from concept to reality in a handful of weeks. This is definitely a model for future development.
Patrick Skillen
Senior software engineer at NES Technology Service
