Background

The National Data Opt-out Programme (NDOP) is a product of the National Data Guardian (NDG) review on data security and how individuals’ data is used and shared by healthcare organizations. NDOP has been created to provide a model that will allow each individual patient to have control over specific data, being able to choose the purposes for which data can be shared.

NDOP will provide a mechanism for patients registered with a GP in England to control data sharing preferences.

The initial phase will provide an on-line portal where patients can use a standard web browser to set their data sharing preferences. Additional mechanisms will be introduced at a later date, including GP Practice Systems, mobile devices and off-line systems.

National Data Opt-out Programme API

The National Data Opt-out Programme requires an API to capture the preferences chosen via the online portal and transfer these preferences to a centralized data store located on Spine. The API will use the HL7 FHIR® standard to enable preferences to be created, retrieved and updated using REST methods. A FHIR RESTful API using HTTP request/response, allowing rapid development of applications using the NDOP API.

The NDOP API is relatively lightweight in its design, made up of limited components, making it easy to maintain and deploy.

Using this guide

This guide has been created to support the adoption of the FHIR® ODS Lookup API profiles and FHIR resources. As such the site is structured around stakeholders including API users, developers and architects, who have an interest in implementing the FHIR® ODS Lookup API.