Following the news that the CEO of NHSX has said the APIs of the NHS App should be opened up for innovators to build on – we are asking Digital Health News readers whether this is a good idea or not.
In a blog post published on Friday, Matthew Gould said he wanted to “expose the APIs” of the NHS app, adding he wanted to keep the app “thin” so others could come up “with brilliant features on top”.
The news has been welcomed by a number of people who have said it will create a “positive network effect”.
One of those who believe it is a positive step is Patients Know Best CEO and founder Al-Ubaydli.
He said: “It’s great to see this collaborative approach from NHSX with industry partners.
“At Patients Know Best, our architecture is all about open APIs and partnership working. We are already integrated with apps like Health Help Now, as well as local IDCRs [integrated digital care records] like Bristol Connecting Care, and nationally through the National Welsh Informatics Service. It’s encouraging to see NHSX now adopting this model to ensure more UK taxpayers benefit from this best of breed approach.”
Another figure who has praised Gould’s blog is Inderjit Singh, who is the national lead for the Local Health and Care Record Exemplar (LHCRE) project and head of architecture and cyber eecurity at NHSX.
He tweeted to say the move was a “really important signal”.
A great article from @matthewsgould @nhsx already showing the direction of separating out thin platforms from app ecosystems,. A really important signal of only doing what makes sense in the centre but also that to transform services requires much much more than the tech,,,,, https://t.co/tPg0XjAQss
— indi singh (@mr_indisingh) June 1, 2019
While Gould’s announcement has been met with praise by many, others have expressed concern it will provide a gateway for private providers to “scoop up NHS work”.
As the blog post has attracted opinion on both sides of the argument, Digital Health News is running a poll asking readers whether they think this approach by Gould is the right decision. Share your thoughts and we’ll publish the results shortly.
7 June 2019 @ 10:34
‘Another figure who has praised Gould’s blog is …’ someone who works for Gould. Well colour me surprised.
6 June 2019 @ 15:14
Lots of good things here:
1) Recognising that the NHS App as an all-singing and dancing one size fits all solution was a bad idea and scaling it back.
2) NHS ID is I vital component if we want an open platform ecosystem. ID Assurance is something that is best done by the centre and with the use of openID they have got this dead right.
3) Making vendors open up the API created for the NHS app to others – Not without some practical issues (which will provide an excuse for the vendors to resit this) but absolutely the right thing to do.
I’m keen to understand want the platform is that they have built to support the NHS App that they now plan to open up for others? The app itself is clearly not itself a platform but I’m willing to accept that a platform has been built to support it. Lets hear more.
5 June 2019 @ 14:34
Geoff, based on a previous discussion about how suppliers would be assessed for compliance to access the API, I don’t think that’s a concern – and should result in quicker and more efficient connection to the APIs once approval is gained. I’m actually surprised this is a question being asked… of course the APIs that were commissioned for NHS App that would have cause an anti-competition in the market should be opened up. All of us as tax-payers have funded these. I’m just not getting why the media has yet to investigate/publish something on the brown show that is this shambles of a project – and the wasting of millions in tax payer money to both reinvent the wheel and then to de-scope the wheel to a square instead.
5 June 2019 @ 08:24
Like most things this is really more nuanced than a simple yes/no. Whilst in general I welcome this change, it is important that the implementation is supported by a rigorous system of evaluation for applications using the API.