EMIS Interoperability overview

Accurate, timely and informed care relies heavily on being able to access up-to-date patient information. Yet with hundreds of different IT systems being used across the UK’s health and care services, gaining access to this information isn’t always as straightforward as it needs to be.

To break down the barriers that stand between clinicians and access to complete patient records, EMIS are enabling interoperability through existing systems.

• EMIS frequently meet and work on programmes with the Professional Records Standards Body (PRSB).
  
• They collaborate closely with NHS England on a number of schemes and work across every single one of their domains.

EMIS are working to make sure that all of their products comply with SNOMED CT coding and that their interoperability meets the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR). With their systems meeting set standards and using the same language, it’s easier for them to speak to each other – and for clinicians to view shared information.

EMIS are currently building an interoperability platform that’ll support the NHS Transfer of Care Initiative and the sharing of pathology messaging. We’re also working towards linking these capabilities using GP Connect functionality.

EMIS Web interoperability capabilities

GP Connect

GP Connect allows provider organisations (the patient data holder) to share and view clinical information with authorised clinical staff across other healthcare IT systems (consumer organisations). GP Connect includes the following:

• Access Patient Record HTML View - providing 3rd parties with a 'read only' view of a patients record.
• Appointments
  • Provision of appointment slots - publishing slots available for other healthcare organisations.
  • Consumption of appointment slots - viewing, booking and cancelling slots across other healthcare organisations.
• Access Record Structured Data - providing requests from other healthcare organisations to read a patient's GP record in a structured and coded format using FHIR.
  • Medication statement
  • Allergies and intolerances
• Messaging - sending and receiving a consultation/encounter PDF summary back to a patient's registered GP organisation from other healthcare organisations.

Digital Medicines

Digital Medicines uses FHIR messages to support pharmacy information to notify a patient’s GP practice:

• Vaccines
• Emergency supply of medicines

Transfer of Care 

Transfer of Care uses FHIR messages to support hospital information to notify a patient's GP practice.

• Inpatient Care Discharge summaries
• Accident and Emergency Care Discharge
• Outpatient letters 
• Community Mental Health service

National Standards interfaces

Using the NHS Spine (England only)

• Personal Demographics Service (PDS) to identify patients and associate them with their correct medical details.
• Summary Care Record (SCR) enables authorised healthcare staff to view a summary of patients' key information in urgent and emergency care settings, anywhere in the NHS in England.
• Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) is a secure method of transmitting electronic prescriptions directly to a dispenser of the patient's choice.
• GP2GP enables GP organisations to securely transfer and receive the electronic patient records of any regular patient.
• Electronic Referral Service (eRS) to create referrals, reserve and book appointments, and create integrated referral letters.
• eMED3 fit note to create a notification of a patient's ability to work.
• Female Genital Mutilation Risk Indications System (FGM RIS) to support effective early intervention and the ongoing safeguarding of girls under 18 years of age, potentially at risk of FGM.
• National Data Opt-Out (NDOP) a method of adding patients to the Opt In list used for Extracts (PDES, IQ, Extract Services, etc.).
• Child Protection Information Sharing (CP-IS) allows users to share information to improve the care provided for vulnerable children.
• For Urgent Care organisations only.
• PDS Birth Notifications allows maternity units to send new birth notifications electronically via PDS.
• For child health organisations only.

Other interfaces

• Yellow card allows healthcare professionals to submit electronic reports of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) from EMIS Web to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
• NHS 111 messages returned to patient's registered organisation using the Interoperability Toolkit (ITK)
  • Standard NHS 111 messages
  • NHS 111 Post Event Message (PEM) report that checks for any COVID-19 disposition codes
• Directory of Service (DOS) - a central directory integrated with NHS Pathways that is automatically accessed if the patient does not require an ambulance or any attending clinician in the urgent and emergency care services.
• Message Exchange for Social Care and Health (MESH) a secure large file transfer service used across healthcare organisations
  • Laboratory and pathology results

Wales only interfaces

• My Health Online (MHOL) provides services to patients over the internet for booking and cancelling appointments, requesting medication, notifying change or address and sending messages.
• Individual Health Records (IHR) allows medical staff working for an out of hours service can look at a patient's IHR if they need to treat the patient when the GP surgery is closed.

Northern Ireland only interfaces

• Key Information Summary (KIS) allows medical information to be shared with other healthcare staff treating patients with long term health conditions.

Additional interfaces

• Partner products to provide EMIS Web users with a great choice of innovative, quality add-on products as additional modules to complement and enhance the core functionality within EMIS Web. 
• EMIS-TPP Direct Interoperability allows primary and community care organisations using EMIS Web or TPP SystmOne to see a view of each other's data from within either clinical IT system via an embedded HTML view. 
• Portal Software Development Kit (SDK) can access third party functionality and patient records held externally to EMIS Web. 
• Care Record Viewer (CRV) provides a way to retrieve medical information in real time which is stored within an EMIS Web organisation. 
• Medical Interoperability Gateway (MIG) allows patient data contained in one system to be displayed in another and for messages to be exchanged between systems. 
• National Health Application and Infrastructure Services (NHAIS) manages services, patient registration and demographic details for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Apple Health Kit allows patients to collect and store their health data using the Apple Health app, which they can share with their GP and other healthcare professionals using EMIS Web.

EMIS Web interoperability capabilities (coming soon)

• GP Connect: Access Record Structured Data (FHIR) - we already return medications and allergies.
  • Vaccines
  • Uncategorised Data (Observations)
  • Encounters (Consultations)
  • Problems
  • Investigations (Pathology results)
  • Referrals
  • Documents (Attachments and letters)

This is an EmisNow Article and can be found here - https://www.emisnow.com/csm?id=kb_article&sys_id=f84bfffa1b1015146556855bd34bcb83