What is NRL? How can it help us?
NRL stands for the National Record Locator.
We provide a service which records the location of digital (and paper) records within the NHS and provide an index of pointers. These pointers act as signposts and contain the information required to retrieve patient information from source.
Our vision is to improve interoperability and help make data sharing possible by allowing healthcare professionals to securely and remotely retrieve information from source at the point of need so that they can get a longitudinal view of a patient’s records and an indication of their treatment history.
The NRL removes the need for organisations to create duplicate copies of information across systems and organisations, by facilitating access to up-to-date information directly from the source at the point of need, reducing data quality issues.
Interoperability is the ability for different computer systems to exchange information seamlessly. Interoperability is difficult when data is disparate. Patient data can be disparate because it is held by different care settings and/or organisations, because of where a patient has been treated. Scenarios where data cannot be shared across these types of boundaries are not edge cases. NRL can help solve problems where there is no single source of truth for a piece of information.
We want to help improve interoperability across pathways and providers:
- Pathways - Improve interoperability across care setting boundaries e.g. mental health services, maternity services, and care homes
- Providers - Improve interoperability across local and regional geographical boundaries
You can think of NRL like the yellow pages.
•You need to know the patients NHS number before using the service.
•You can then use NRL to find out if records of a certain type exist for that patient.
•If records exist, NRL will signpost you to where you can find them, and how to contact the organisation who has them.
•You can then use another service (such as SSP) to get the record directly from source (from the organisation who holds the record).
•NRL does is not involved in this transaction, in the same way that the yellow pages is separate to the phone you are using to ring somebody, using the contact details found in the yellow pages.