National Imaging Registry (NIR) Onboarding Drop-In Sessions

[Charlee_Martin]

The fortnightly Onboarding Drop-in session is for organisations interested in staying up to date around NIR rollout or currently onboarding. The sessions are about connecting with people who understand your journey, sharing solutions, and accessing useful content like you would when there were offices to drop-in to!

Here, you’ll find out what has been discussed in recent sessions and access updates from the NIR team. You can also express your interest in joining the drop-in session by sending a message to Charlee.

They occur on a Tuesday from 3pm-4pm. You don’t have to stay for the full hour - drop in any time to ask questions and get briefed.

The next drop-in sessions:

• 18 August 2026
• 1 September 2026
• 15 September 2026
• 29 September 2026
• 13 October 2026
• 27 October 2026

[Adam_Strickland]

@Charlee_Martin

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Hi Charlee, were there any topics from the May 19th session?

[Charlee_Martin]

Hi Adam,

Thanks for reaching out! The next XCA Drop-in is on Tuesday, 26th of May, 3pm to 4pm. You would be very welcome to join.

At the previous session on the 12th of May, we covered:

• welcoming our new Product Owner, Cherie Norton

• confirmation that NIR is now live for digital onboarding through the NHSE Digital Onboarding Service as part of the developer and integration hub

• the launch of the NIR supplier Slack channel, which provides a dedicated space for supplier teams to collaborate with the NIR team during onboarding and beyond

• how we will use the Developer Community to stay in contact with Trusts and share updates

• the upcoming Developer Community refresh, which is being led by our Product Owner and is planned throughout June and July

• the Digital Diagnostics Capability Programme FutureNHS page, which provides information on the wider and the Letter of Agreement process for funding

• confirmation that onboarding organisations can access the Letter of Agreement from 13 May

As usual, the session also included some useful collaborative troubleshooting. Following those discussions, we are preparing a supplier survey on reporting and imaging architecture, and those insights should help us understand more about how people are viewing / accessing images within their native systems.

I believe I have your email address, so I’ll also contact you directly to make sure you’re added to the invite and to discuss where we are with NIR, and perhaps your company coming onboard!

[Charlee_Martin]

Highlights

[Charlee_Martin]

Highlights

[Charlee_Martin]

Onboarding Drop-In Session: 8th July 2026

The XCA Drop-In session has been updated and renamed to focus on healthcare organisation onboarding.

This means the session is now for NHS and private healthcare organisations who are interested in the NIR Service or preparing to onboard to the NIR.

If you are an NHS or private healthcare organisation and would like to attend future Onboarding Drop-In’s, please email england.nirdelivery@nhs.net to be added to the invite.

Suppliers will continue to be supported through separate supplier meetings, Slack, and the Developer Community. For more information about joining the NIR Supplier Meeting or arranging a regular 1:1 NIR <> supplier relationship session, please email charlee.martin3@nhs.net.

Key Update - Duplicates policy

The Handling Duplicate Imaging Within the National Imaging Registry (NIR) is now complete, and due to be added to our Governance page soon. An email will be sent out to everyone in the Onboarding Drop-In once it’s live.

The Governance webpage has undergone significant update which will be live no later than the 16th July 2026.

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Question’s raised at the last drop-in

Funding

Q: Is there funding available for NIR onboarding?
Yes, through the Digital Diagnostics Capability (DDC) programme Letter of Agreement (LOA) process.

Trusts and Networks are being contacted proactively by the DDC programme to arrange tailored meetings and walk organisations through the process.

Your supplier is expected to support you in your funding bid, and they have been briefed separately via the NIR product team.

Q: Who should we contact if we want to understand the LOA process?
Please contact the DDC programme at england.diagnostics.ddcp@nhs.net.

Q: Is the funding Trust-led or Network-led?
This depends on what works best for your region. The governance of the funding doesn’t impact on your ability to connect to the NIR.

Funding drop approach can be discussed in more detail with the DDC Programme during your 1:1 engagement calls.

Connection approach

Q: Is it better to connect the PACS or RIS to NIR?
NIR does not dictate the connection approach. We connect at any level that allows for the free-flow of diagnostic images and results for direct care.

The best route will depend on local workflow, clinical need and supplier architecture. Some areas may find it advantageous to connect both the PACS and the RIS.

Healthcare organisations should work with their clinicians, suppliers and local teams to agree the most appropriate direction of travel.

Clinical involvement

Q: Should clinicians attend the onboarding Drop-In?
Is the NHS logo blue? Of course!

NIR is intended to make things easier for clinicians, so clinical input is vitally important.

Clinicians are a key stakeholder in onboarding. Their presence at onboarding meetings is welcomed and encouraged. If you would like to join the onboarding meetings as a clinician or any other critical role, email england.nirdelivery@nhs.net to be added to the invite. Additionally, if there are any specific topics you’d like to discuss, let us know so we can tailor a session.

Supplier Engagement Map

See below map of NIR supplier engagement activity. In the future we’ll bring back a graph depicting healthcare organisation engagement as well.

[Charlee_Martin]

Onboarding Drop-In Session: 21st July 2026

The session was focused on new webpage changes. We also had a good discussion around performance for NIR and the Letter of Agreement process.

Governance Pages

We’ve made a number of updates to the NIR Governance webpage, which are now live:

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/national-imaging-registry/governance

All sections will be useful to organisations (and their suppliers) onboarding to NIR, but the following may be of particular interest:

Clinical Safety Documentation
This section includes the NIR product-level Clinical Risk Management Plan, Clinical Safety Case Report and Hazard Log:

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/national-imaging-registry/governance#clinical-safety-documentation

Deployment Safety Responsibilities
This outlines the respective clinical safety responsibilities of suppliers and healthcare organisations when deploying NIR.

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/national-imaging-registry/governance#deployment-safety-responsibilities

Essential Clinical Safety Templates
This section includes key deployment resources, including:

• Template DCB0160
• NIR Clinical Safety Guidance
• Handling of Duplicate Imaging Policy

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/national-imaging-registry/governance#essential-clinical-safety-templates

Information Governance Documentation
Key IG templates are available here:

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/national-imaging-registry/governance#ig-documentation

Guidance on completing your local Data Protection Impact Assessment is available here:

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/national-imaging-registry/governance#data-protection-impact-assessment-dpia-

Organisations currently onboarding to NIR will receive a controlled copy of the NIR template DPIA emailed separately.

Functional Capabilities

Please review the updated NIR Functional Capabilities webpage, particularly “Testing functional capabilities of NIR.” This explains the distinction between supplier technical conformance testing and the organisation’s responsibility to test the supplier’s implementation within its local system, including success and failure scenarios.

We also recommend reviewing the NIR Project Background. Although this page has been available for some time, it provides useful context on the discovery, Alpha, user research and technical engagement that have shaped the service.

Discussion points during Drop-In

Performance
The current NIR SLA is for a query to return within two seconds. Image and report retrieval is a separate and more complex consideration, partly dependent on the responsiveness and egress performance of the source system. Retrieval performance is therefore being considered through our cross-functional design group. Our aim is for NIR to improve significantly on current methods of obtaining known external imaging and reports, which can take hours or days.

Connections and use cases
NIR currently uses IHE profiles to connect into existing PACS and RIS environments. We are also exploring relevant use cases involving teleradiology providers, Shared Care Records, EPRs and other clinical systems. NIR does not have a preferred technology route for connection; we connect at the level required to achieve clinical benefit.

Letter of Agreement
The Digital Diagnostics Capability (DDC) Programme is contacting Networks and Trusts to discuss the Letter of Agreement process in more detail. If you have not yet received a meeting invitation and believe your organisation should have, please reply to this post and let us know.

[Charlee_Martin]

Thank you to everyone who joined the latest NIR Onboarding Drop-In. We had several positive updates, including progress across supplier onboarding and regional engagement.

Supplier Position

Suppliers are actively engaged with the NIR product team and are progressing through regular engagement activity to support onboarding readiness. This includes structured supplier product meetings, scheduled 1:1 check-ins, and ad hoc discussions to resolve questions, confirm delivery approaches, and maintain momentum.

We are continuing to engage the remaining suppliers across the market and are also undertaking a teleradiology proof of concept to explore additional routes for NIR connectivity. If there is a supplier you would like the NIR team to contact, please email england.nirdelivery@nhs.net.

Regional NIR Engagement Position

The regional engagement map is an indicative, live planning view rather than a fixed delivery commitment. It reflects how engagement is currently unfolding and will continue to change as regional plans, local readiness, supplier dependencies and onboarding sequences become clearer. Some areas may progress more quickly than shown, while others may require additional time - which is expected.

Although the map is structured around imaging networks, delivery is not always taking place at network level. Many organisations are choosing to connect Trust by Trust, so the map cannot fully represent the precise engagement or onboarding position of every individual Trust. The information will therefore be refined over time as organisational plans and delivery routes are confirmed.

Legend:

Onboarding: Entered Digital Onboarding Service

Now: Planned engagements happening now / scheduling for now

Next: Next engagements to be scheduled

Later: Later engagement (this can easily be moved forward)

If you would like to know where your Trust fits on the map, please email england.nirdelivery@nhs.net.

Onboarding guidance

Several attendees requested a copy of the onboarding pack. The relevant guidance and supporting information are available on the NIR onboarding guidance page.

There are updates scheduled for the relevant onboarding webpages which are planned for next week. They include:

Governance page:

• clarification of the historic data requirements for NIR
• re-upload of the duplicate records policy.

Onboarding page:

• version 7 of the supplier onboarding guidance and version 6 of the Trust onboarding guidance (minor tweaks)
• an updated supplier use-case form.
• clearer guidance on the steps organisations and suppliers should take to begin onboarding.

Letter of Agreement support

Queries were raised about who can support Trusts with the detailed completion of the Letter of Agreement.

At a high level:

• Suppliers should support the technical and delivery content, including the proposed connection route, Statement of Work, costs, dependencies and the appropriate supplier endorsements. Guidance has been provided to suppliers and is below:

• The DDCP team can support Trust-specific questions and completion of the funding application. Contact england.diagnostics.ddcp@nhs.net.

Fly-in/fly-out resource

Trusts can request fly-in/fly-out support for the activities required to connect to and adopt NIR. This may include:

• Information governance
• Clinical safety
• Technical delivery
• Testing
• Training and adoption

The resources requested should reflect the Trust’s actual delivery needs. For example, where an established interface already has testing support, a UAT Test Manager may not be required. The discussion among Trusts suggested that some organisations may instead need performance-testing support.

The Letter of Agreement should therefore describe the specific roles and support required locally. Trusts do not need to request resources that are not necessary.

Where an additional requirement becomes apparent during onboarding, the Tiger Team Coordinator will be available to help identify and mobilise the appropriate support.