NHS Standards Directory and DHSC Standards Direction

This page maps the NHS Standards Directory and NHS England / DHSC standards direction to the InterSystems wiki. It is a relevance map, not a mirror of every directory entry.

Current Reading

The PRSB / Core Information Standards Service funding change is not evidence that NHS standards work has stopped. NHS England Digital still describes information standards as legal requirements for consistent data capture, governance, sharing, and digital exchange. DAPB/DAB governance remains the public approval route, the NHS Standards Directory remains the discovery route for recognised published and future standards, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 clarifies the information-standard relevance of IT and IT services in England, and the Health Bill proposes that NHS England digital and data functions transfer to the Secretary of State through the restructured DHSC.

The practical caveat is narrower: PRSB's NHS England-funded CISS role changed, so NHS England, DHSC, PRSB, and the Standards Directory remain the evidence points for future ownership, maintenance, feedback, and conformance routes.

The GP Connect / MESH / ITK3 cluster is now split into NHS Standards Directory GP Connect, MESH, and ITK3 because that dependency chain is dense enough to need a child page.

How To Use The Directory

The Standards Directory is evidence that a standard, API, information standard, or specification is recognised in the NHS England / adult social care standards landscape. It is not proof that an InterSystems product implements that standard, that a local deployment has configured it, or that a supplier is assured for a specific route.

Use the directory as a standards-surface map, then pair it with:

InterSystems product documentation for product capability.
PRSB or NHS conformance records for named product assurance.
NHS supplier-progress records for GP Connect or similar onboarding status.
Customer, procurement, DPIA, FOI, or programme sources for live local deployment.

Relevant Standards Map

Standards family	Directory items mapped in this pass	What it standardises	InterSystems relevance	Boundary
NHS standards governance and discovery	NHS information standards, DAPB/DAB governance, Standards and Collections, NHS Standards Directory, and Health Bill DHSC digital/data transfer material.	National standards governance, legal/mandatory information-standard route, published/future standards discovery, and proposed DHSC inheritance of NHS England digital/data functions.	Sets the policy frame for NHS-facing InterSystems evidence and the distinction between PRSB stewardship and national standards responsibility.	Governance evidence does not prove product conformance; it defines where current/future standards evidence should be checked.
Statutory information-standard chain	Health and Social Care Act 2012 section 250, Health and Care Act 2022 amendments, and Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 section 121 / Schedule 15.	Section 250 is the base information-standard power; Health and Care Act 2022 moves applicable standards towards mandatory compliance and monitoring/enforcement; DUAA clarifies that standards can include IT/IT services and can apply to IT, IT-service, or information-processing-service providers used or intended for health/adult social care in England.	Strengthens due-diligence questions for InterSystems supplier roles, component/service scope, named-standard applicability, and whether a deployment must comply with a standard rather than merely have regard to it.	This is statutory context, not a directory entry, conformance record, DSIC catalogue record, or InterSystems product proof.
GP Connect and GP-record APIs	GP Connect Access Record: HTML, Access Record: Structured, Access Document, Appointment Management, Send Document, Patient Facing Prescriptions, plus item-level dependency pages for ARS and Send Document. Detailed dependency mapping now lives in NHS Standards Directory GP Connect, MESH, and ITK3.	GP-practice record read, document retrieval, appointment management, document send, and patient-facing prescription functions over FHIR or related NHS patterns. Send Document is a production MESH / ITK3 / FHIR STU3 messaging route in the current NHS API page.	Relevant to IRIS for Health, HealthShare, Health Connect, FHIR Services, and the GP Connect due-diligence pages where NHS supplier-progress or product evidence names InterSystems.	A directory API entry is NHS service/API evidence, not InterSystems support. Supplier-progress and product evidence still decide product reading.
FHIR foundation and naming	UK Core Implementation Guide, UK Core FHIR Release 4 Governance, HL7 FHIR, and UK Naming Systems.	Common FHIR implementation guidance, UK FHIR governance, base FHIR exchange standard, and canonical identifier/naming-system catalogues.	Directly relevant to IRIS for Health, FHIR Services, InterSystems FHIR Server, Health Connect, HealthShare, and FHIR Packages and Profiles.	Foundation standards support technical plausibility, not local implementation or conformance by themselves.
Spine-like national infrastructure, identity, organisation data, events, and messaging	MESH API, ITK3, Personal Demographics Service notifications / legacy SMSP route, Organisation Data Service / ODS API guidance, Spine Directory Service, National Events Management Service, GP2GP HL7 V3, and NHAIS GP Links.	Secure message/file exchange, demographic-change notifications, organisation-code/reference-data lookup and synchronisation, endpoint/addressing context, event publication, GP-to-GP record transfer, and legacy GP registration/data routes.	Relevant to Health Connect and IRIS for Health integration patterns, EMPI identity matching, Provider Directory organisation/provider data, GP Connect architecture boundaries, Send Document / Update Record style messaging, and cross-UK comparisons of Spine-like functions.	Some routes are legacy or deprecated; ODS/SDS evidence defines national dependency and reference-data obligations but does not prove a Provider Directory or HealthShare deployment.
Terminology, medicines, and clinical safety	SNOMED CT, NHS dictionary of medicines and devices, NHS Digital FHIR Medicines, Implementation Guide for Interoperable Medicines, DCB0129, and DCB0160.	Clinical terminology, medicines coding/exchange, and clinical-safety manufacture/deployment assurance for health IT.	Relevant across InterSystems clinical data models, HealthShare shared records, IRIS for Health/FHIR repositories, and supplier clinical-safety assurance.	These are enabling standards and assurance requirements, not proof of a named customer deployment.
Transfer of care, shared-record content, and PRSB content	Acute Inpatient Discharge Standard, Transfer of Care FHIR specifications, Core Information Standard, Palliative and End of Life Care, Healthy Child Programme, Digital Child Health FHIR, Digital Maternity Record Standard, and Nursing Care Needs Standard.	Structured content and exchange for shared care records, discharge, outpatient and emergency/mental-health transfer, life-stage pathways, and care-needs records.	Relevant to HealthShare UCR/Clinical Viewer, Health Connect, IRIS for Health, FHIR Services, Personal Community, Care Community, and Programme CORTISONE where shared-care or pathway content is in scope.	Standards applicability is broader than product conformance; PRSB CIS is the only current PRSB conformance evidence naming InterSystems Healthshare in this pass.
Imaging and diagnostics	DICOM, Pathology FHIR Implementation Guide, and retired Pathology Test and Results Standard.	Medical imaging exchange and pathology data exchange / historical pathology messaging basis.	Relevant to HealthShare imaging/display claims, Health Connect integration, and IRIS for Health/FHIR transformation where local diagnostics routes are configured.	DICOM/pathology standards show recognised domains, not a specific InterSystems implementation; retired standards require current replacement checks before use.

DUAA Section 121 / Schedule 15 Crosswalk

Use this crosswalk to test whether the statutory information-standard chain changes the due-diligence question for a named NHS Standards Directory entry. It does not decide the answer by itself. Health and Social Care Act 2012 section 250 provides the base route; Health and Care Act 2022 strengthens mandatory compliance and monitoring/enforcement; DUAA says information standards for health and adult social care in England can include IT and IT services and can apply to IT, IT-service, or information-processing-service providers. The Standards Directory still identifies the named standards surface; supplier and deployment artefacts still prove implementation.

Named standards surface	Why DUAA matters	InterSystems / HealthShare supplier question	Evidence needed before using as a compliance claim
UK Core Implementation Guide, UK Core FHIR Release 4 Governance, HL7 FHIR, and UK Naming Systems	These can affect how data structures, resource profiles, identifiers, and FHIR endpoints are implemented in health/adult social care systems.	Does the product or managed service expose, store, transform, validate, or broker FHIR resources in a way that the named standard applies to the supplier role?	Product/version capability statement, installed packages/profiles, validation policy, endpoint configuration, test evidence, and local implementation guide.
GP Connect Access Record: HTML, Access Record: Structured, Access Document, Appointment Management, Send Document, and patient-facing API entries	GP Connect entries are NHS API/service standards with supplier onboarding and capability implications.	Is InterSystems acting as GP Connect provider, consumer, middleware, viewer, document sender, or patient-facing component supplier? Use the child page for item-level role splits.	Supplier-progress row, onboarding status, approved use case, SSP/HSCN/RBAC/JWT/TLS MA or MESH/ITK3 evidence, clinical testing, and customer deployment artefacts.
MESH API and Interoperability Toolkit 3 Messaging Distribution FHIR API Standards	Messaging standards affect document and event exchange where the supplier operates routing, mailbox, payload, monitoring, or integration services.	Does Health Connect or IRIS for Health operate a MESH/ITK3 integration service, and who owns mailbox, certificate, workflow ID, payload validation, and support responsibilities? Use the child page for the GP Connect Send Document / MESH / ITK3 chain.	MESH mailbox design, endpoint certificates, workflow IDs, payload conformance, monitoring/alerting, service-management responsibilities, and incident process.
Personal Demographics Service, Organisation Data Service / ODS API guidance, Spine Directory Service, and National Events Management Service	Demographic, organisation-reference, endpoint/addressing, and event standards affect identity, matching, provider/organisation context, updates, and event-driven record maintenance.	Does HealthShare EMPI, Provider Directory, UCR, Clinical Viewer, Health Connect, or an integration layer consume, synchronise, display, or publish patient-demographic, organisation, endpoint, or event data under a named NHS standard/service?	PDS integration design, NHS number policy, ODS/SDS mapping, matching rules, local-copy synchronisation, directory stewardship, event subscriptions, reconciliation process, audit, and safety case.
GP2GP HL7 V3 and NHAIS GP Links	GP registration and record-transfer standards are foundation GP-system concerns, not optional shared-care adjuncts.	Is the InterSystems-backed solution claiming GP foundation-system responsibility, or only adjacent shared-care/integration use?	Clear role split with a foundation GP supplier if applicable; GP2GP/NHAIS conformance, registration workflow, migration/cutover evidence, and user training if claiming foundation scope.
SNOMED CT, NHS dictionary of medicines and devices, NHS Digital FHIR Medicines, and Implementation Guide for Interoperable Medicines	Terminology and medicines standards affect coded clinical data, medicines exchange, prescribing-adjacent views, and analytics.	Does the deployment store, display, map, transform, or report coded problems, observations, medicines, allergies, prescribing data, or medication summaries?	Terminology server/source, dm+d and SNOMED CT versioning, mapping rules, code-system governance, medicines safety checks, data-quality controls, and clinical validation.
DCB0129 and DCB0160 clinical-safety standards	Clinical safety is a supplier/deployment assurance obligation where software can affect patient care.	Which organisation is the manufacturer/supplier safety owner, and which care organisation owns deployment hazard controls?	DCB0129 clinical-safety case, DCB0160 deployment safety case, hazard log, residual-risk acceptance, clinical-safety officer roles, change-control and release evidence.
Transfer of Care FHIR specifications and PRSB content standards, including Core Information Standard, palliative/end-of-life, Healthy Child, Digital Child Health FHIR, maternity, and nursing-care-needs standards	Shared-care, pathway, and transfer content standards may apply to record aggregation, viewing, transformation, export, or messaging services.	Does HealthShare UCR, Clinical Viewer, Health Connect, Personal Community, Care Community, or a FHIR service implement or display the named content standard?	Content model mapping, PRSB/FHIR conformance where available, data-source provenance, display policy, transformation tests, accessibility, and clinical sign-off.
DICOM, Pathology FHIR Implementation Guide, and pathology standards	Imaging and diagnostics standards can apply where the deployment exchanges, displays, links, or transforms diagnostic data.	Does the InterSystems component broker diagnostic messages, expose pathology FHIR resources, display imaging references, or integrate with diagnostic systems?	Interface catalogue, current standard status check, DICOM/pathology mappings, transformation tests, data-source validation, image/report display controls, and operational support model.

DMICP / Health Connect / HealthShare Cross-Check

Use this cross-check when the Executive Summary route is being assessed against NHS England. The DUAA question should be asked through named standards surfaces, not as an abstract "DUAA compliance" claim. DMICP and CORTISONE evidence can identify the source-system and programme route, but NHS England standards still need product, supplier, and deployment proof before they can support a compliance conclusion.

Route element	Named standards surface to test first	DUAA supplier-role question	Evidence needed before the route can support a compliance claim
DMICP source feed into Health Connect	UK Core / HL7 FHIR, UK Naming Systems, HL7 v2/v3, CDA/C-CDA or local extract specifications, plus DCB0129/DCB0160 if the feed affects clinical workflow.	Is Health Connect, IRIS for Health, or another InterSystems component acting as an IT or information-processing service for an England health/adult social care route, or only for internal CORTISONE processing?	DMICP interface catalogue, data model, extract/API design, mapping and validation rules, source-system provenance, clinical-safety case, IG pack, and operational runbook.
Health Connect national-service adapter layer	GP Connect, MESH API, ITK3, PDS/events, ODS/SDS, NEMS, FHIR/UK Core, terminology, medicines, and transfer-of-care standards according to the workflow.	Which named standard is Health Connect implementing or operating, and is InterSystems supplier, middleware provider, processor, subprocessor, or platform provider for that route?	Product/version scope, supplier-progress or onboarding evidence, endpoint/certificate setup, mailbox/workflow IDs, payload tests, monitoring, support RACI, DSA/DPIA, and customer approval.
HealthShare shared-care record and clinical viewer	PRSB Core Information Standard, transfer-of-care and shared-record content standards, SNOMED CT, dm+d, UK Core / FHIR, DCB0129/DCB0160, PDS, ODS/SDS, and role/access controls.	Does HealthShare store, aggregate, transform, display, or expose records under a named information standard, and what part of the supplier/deployment responsibility belongs to InterSystems?	Component/version scope, content mapping, PRSB/FHIR conformance where used, data-source provenance, display policy, RBAC/SSO/audit, safety case, DSA/DPIA, and deployment guide.
EMPI and Provider Directory under HealthShare	PDS, NHS number handling, ODS, SDS, endpoint/addressing, local-copy synchronisation, and event standards.	Does the deployment use InterSystems components to consume, synchronise, steward, or display national patient, organisation, provider, or endpoint data under NHS standards?	PDS/ODS/SDS onboarding, matching rules, stewardship model, synchronisation design, reconciliation and warning workflows, audit evidence, authoritative-source decision, and safety ownership.
Regional, hospital, diagnostic, or document routes	Transfer of Care FHIR specifications, MESH/ITK3, DICOM, Pathology FHIR Implementation Guide, terminology, medicines, local APIs, and local trust interface specifications.	Is the InterSystems layer brokering, transforming, storing, or displaying content in a way that brings a named NHS information standard into scope?	Target-system interface catalogue, payload profiles, terminology and code-system governance, conformance tests, endpoint ownership, monitoring, fallback, incident process, and clinical sign-off.
Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland extension	Nation-specific equivalents, not NHS England DSIC or DUAA section 121 / Schedule 15 labels unless a nation-specific source adopts the same route.	DUAA's England health/adult social care information-standard point should not be exported into devolved administrations without direct evidence.	Nation-specific API/message routes, identifiers, shared-record or portal interfaces, governance, onboarding, safety, IG, and customer deployment artefacts.

InterSystems Product Reading

Product or capability	Standards-directory implication	Current evidence treatment
IRIS for Health and FHIR Services	Strong fit with FHIR foundation, UK Core, naming systems, terminology, medicines, and API hosting / repository patterns.	Current evidence supports technical enablement; product docs, NHS assurance records, or customer sources are still needed for a specific standard or API claim.
Health Connect	Strong fit with MESH, GP Connect Send Document, transfer-of-care, PDS/event, ODS/SDS, and integration-message patterns.	Current evidence supports integration capability and one PDS FHIR integrated-products row for `Intersystems HealthConnect 2020.1`; broader live NHS onboarding still requires supplier-progress or implementation evidence.
HealthShare Unified Care Record and Clinical Viewer	Strong fit with PRSB CIS, shared-care-record content, terminology, medicines, patient/organisation identity, imaging, and role-based record views.	PRSB CIS Version 2 Level 2 conformance is independently supported for InterSystems Healthshare; PDS/ODS/SDS requirements remain deployment-specific.
HealthShare EMPI and Provider Directory	Strong functional fit with patient identity matching and provider/organisation master data.	Current evidence supports product positioning and PDS/ODS/SDS dependency boundaries, not named implementation proof.
HealthShare Personal Community and Care Community	Fit with patient-facing access, care planning, About Me / personalised content, life-stage, and care-needs standards where configured.	Treat as applicability until product or customer evidence maps the local content model to named standards.
Programme CORTISONE / UK Defence healthcare	Fit with open standards, NHS interface, shared-record, identity, terminology, clinical-safety, transfer-of-care, and life-stage standards.	Public evidence supports InterSystems programme relevance, not specific PRSB, NHS, or directory-standard conformance in CORTISONE.

Follow-up Evidence

Recheck NHS England / DHSC after Health Bill enactment and after any published operating-model note for standards maintenance.
Recheck PRSB and NHS Standards Directory when CIS Version 3 is published or transferred into a new maintenance route.
Expand additional directory items into child pages only when a named InterSystems product, NHS supplier-progress row, or customer deployment needs item-level proof. GP Connect / MESH / ITK3 has now crossed that threshold.
Add current NHS supplier assurance / onboarding evidence where a Standards Directory API page intersects an InterSystems product claim.