Which API is best for bulk patient updates

open forum
1

Hi all,

I’m looking for some advice on the best way to approach an integration between a bespoke desktop application and GP systems (EMIS and SystmOne).

We’ve previously worked with the TPP SystmOne API successfully, but we don’t yet have experience with EMIS integrations.
I’d like to clarify which API(s) are most appropriate for the following type of workflow:
• Ability to upload a large patient dataset periodically (hundreds of thousands of records).
• For each patient, determine the relevant GP practice (ODS code lookup).
• Handle error reporting

My main questions are:

  1. Which API would be suitable for this type of bulk patient update?

  2. Are there any known constraints (rate limits, batch size) that I should be aware of?

Thanks

1 Like
2

• For each patient, determine the relevant GP practice (ODS code lookup).

For this point you’ll want PDS, rather than the GP system itself.

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/personal-demographics-service/access-data-on-the-personal-demographics-service

PDS holds the ODS code of the patient’s registered practice. There are several variants - DBS is for tracing patients in bulk, or there are multiple API flavours (HL7v3, FHIR) depending on your preference.

In terms of updating the GP record itself, it depends on what you are trying to update, can you provide more details on that. Is it coded data? Documents? Demographics?

1 Like