A further glossary of common terms and abbreviations used throughout the documentation can be found on the Health Developer Network.
111
The non emergency, free to call telephone number used across England for single point of entry to access Integrated Urgent Care services; also an online service for non-emergency care for the same purpose.
999
The emergency telephone number used across England to access emergency services in a medical emergency when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk.
A&E
Accident and Emergency
An A&E department (also known as emergency department or casualty) deals with genuine life-threatening emergencies.
Alpha
A development stage in iterative delivery to build a basic working system with limited functionality used to demonstrate to users
Care Advice
Advice provided to the patients for management of symptoms
Care Connect
A number of RESTful APIs that have been collaboratively developed to support the delivery of care through interoperability. The CDS API Implementation Guide uses aspects of CareConnect to govern the functionality of certain Resources.
CCG
Clinical Commissioning Group
Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) commission most of the hospital and community NHS services in the local areas for which they are responsible. Commissioning involves deciding what services are needed for diverse local populations, and ensuring that they are provided. At its simplest, commissioning is the process of planning, agreeing and monitoring services.
CDA
Clinical Document Architecture
CDA is an information and messaging standard by HL7.
CDSS
Clinical Decision Support System
A clinical decision support system (CDSS) is a health information technology system that is designed to provide physicians and other health professionals with clinical decision support (CDS) with clinical decision-making tasks.
Clinician
Medically qualified system users who triage patients through the CDSS
Clinical outcome
The result of receiving medical advice or treatment, and can be measured through subsequent patient activity data such as hospital admission or re-admission.
Commissioner
The entity responsible for the process of planning, contracting and monitoring services.
CTI
Computer Telephony Integration
Also called computer–telephone integration, CTI is a common name for any technology that allows interactions on a telephone and a computer to be integrated or coordinated. The term is predominantly used to describe desktop-based interaction for helping users be more efficient, though it can also refer to server-based functionality such as automatic call routing.
Disposition
The perceived clinical need of a patient in the form of a skillset and time frame
EMS
Encounter Management System
A system used for workflow management and to record, manage and track a patient’s episode of care through UEC settings. The EMS enables the triage and clinical assessment of patients to determine their health needs and signpost them to the appropriate care setting or support the provision of clinical consultation and treatment; this is expected to be achieved through integration with one or more supporting systems and services.
GP
General Practitioner
Doctors who can deal with a whole range of health problems. They also provide health education, offer advice on smoking and diet, run clinics, give vaccinations and carry out simple surgical operations.
Health Information
General information provided about health and care with the absence of triage or symptoms
HL7
Health Level 7
HL7.org is an international organisation responsible for the creation and maintenance of information and interoperability standards for healthcare.
Health Outcome
Refers to impact of over triage or under triage to patient well being, as well as the impact on patients when they follow advice given or the impact of not following the advice e.g. mortality, hospitalisation, or re-presentation of symptoms. Health outcomes require longer term monitoring of the patient than immediate clinical outcomes ; the health outcome is not always immediately obvious
HTTP
Hyper Text Transfer protocol
Hypertext Transfer Protocol is an application protocol used for data communication in the World Wide Web. It provides a standard for web browsers that facilitates users to exchange information over the internet.
ITK
Interoperability Tool Kit
A collection of interoperability standards and tools produced by NHS Digital to support interoperability in healthcare.
IUC CAS
Integrated Urgent Care Clinical Assessment Service
Physical and/or virtual hub providing clinical advice to patients contacting the 111 or 999 services, as well as providing clinical support to clinicians (particularly ambulance staff such as paramedics and emergency technicians) to ensure that no decision is made in isolation. Also known as Care Advice Service or Clinical Assessment Service, previously known as a Clinical Navigation Hub.
Patient
Generic term used in Commissioning Standards for citizens / public using the service.
PMPR
Predictive Modelling of Patient Risk
Using historical data to identify the patient-level variables that predict over-triage and under-triage for different Pathways or symptom groups. These patient-level variables can then be used to identify future service users who are at high risk of over- and under-triage.
POC
Proof of Concept
A proof of concept is a demonstration, the purpose of which is to verify that certain concepts or theories have the potential for real-world application. POC is therefore a prototype that is designed to determine feasibility, but does not represent deliverables.
Provider
Entity contracted by a commissioner to provide a service
SNOMED CT
Systemised Nomenclature of Medicine (Clinical Terms).
A structured clinical vocabulary for use in an electronic health record. It is the most comprehensive and precise clinical health terminology product in the world.
Supplier
An entity providing a system or system components to Providers or the System user Person interacting with the system
Triage
The process of determining the priority of patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition
UEC
Urgent and Emergency Care
An area of Health Care services that primarily deals with urgent same day outpatient contacts for patient needs such as minor illness and injuries, and involves sign-posting and treatment of patients in settings such as 111, 999, OOH (Out Of Hours) GPs, A&E and minor injuries units, or through arrangement of urgent appointments (GP and Dental).
UTC
Urgent Treatment Centres
Medical treatment facility where patients can be treated for minor emergencies and injury.
WIC
Walk-in centre
NHS walk-in centres offer convenient access to a range of treatments. WICs are managed by Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), dealing with minor illnesses and injuries
