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Syndication

NHS Choices syndicated content

This page gives you a complete overview of NHS Choices syndicated content. Please visit it regularly to find out about the latest syndication developments. In addition, have a look at the syndication feeds forum, where you can find details of all feeds and features, videos, helpful hints and tips, and examples of how different partners are using NHS Choices syndicated content. You can also share ideas and ask questions in our forum.

Working in partnership via content syndication

Each month, around 10 million people access NHS Choices content via more than 400 partner websites, applications and other internet connected devices, including over 200 NHS organisations and local authorities, Microsoft, Mind, Mumsnet and Boots. Our free syndication programme allows partners to embed NHS Choices content (including multimedia tools and more than 900 videos) within their websites, negating the need for in-house development or external signposting. In the past year, 50 million people have viewed NHS content via partner websites. For example, Microsoft uses our content to power its mobile Health Choices application and Myria Systems has implemented the information across a range of GP websites.

What is NHS Choices syndication?

Syndication allows you to pull content from the NHS Choices website via a feed. This means that any information you syndicate will remain up-to-date, regardless of any changes we make. This content spans the website, meaning you can pull in single articles on a condition, or whole chunks of information on stopping smoking or weight loss. The content and data is supplied in .xml, which you can integrate with any web solution, and can also be used to power mobile applications, smart TV channels and others.

The API key supplied to you as part of your integration will allow you to access the feeds. Videos are accessed by embedding them directly from the site, or we can build you a multiplayer containing multiple videos. For more guidance, read our Syndication video blog. Please note we no longer supply videos in hard copy format. If you wish use any of our tools, read the Tool Usage guidance and let your syndication manager know which ones you require.

Please contact Matt George (matt.george1@nhs.net) if you are working for local government, an NHS organisation or a charity.

Please contact Richard Moore (richard.moore10@nhs.net) if you are working for a commercial organisation and/or are interested in app development.

How to register

To get access to NHS Choices syndicated content, simply fill in the registration provided under the heading Register as organisation.

Widgets

Content via syndication should be simple to integrate, assuming you have access to someone with the requisite technical knowledge – it will involve writing back-end script, such as PHP, .NET, etc. If you don’t have this knowledge, or access to it, you can use our widgets to integrate Services near you (directory of health and social care services), Health A-Z (conditions and treatments explained) and Live Well (healthy living advice). The widgets are easy to configure and use, and work by giving you embedding code to add to your webpages, producing the desired widget. For further information, see our Syndication widget area.

What’s available?

You can choose content from different areas of the site depending on your needs. Syndication is currently available for:

Health A-Z

This section provides information and advice on more than 800 conditions and treatments in an easy and comprehensive way. Top doctors and health professionals share their knowledge and advice while patients give an insight into coping with particular conditions or procedures.

Common health questions

Answers to topical and frequently asked health questions.

Live Well

A lifestyle section that provides guides, tips and high-quality information on how to live a healthier life. Covering around 110 broad topic areas, there's always something new to find, with articles, videos and interactive tools being continually added.

Services near you

A directory for all the health and care services in England – everything from GPs and dentists to carers services and gyms.

Comments

Patient feedback allows members of the public to post comments about their experience with individual NHS service providers. If you are the service provider, you can post a reply to each comment.

Care and support

Care and support is your essential guide to social care. It also offers advice to the 5 million people in England who look after someone else, including information about benefits, local care services, and more.

Guides and planners

Access to a range of targeted information such as pregnancy and baby, vaccinations, contraception and mental wellbeing.

Behind the Headlines

Provides an unbiased and evidence-based daily analysis of the science behind the health stories making the news.

Tools

More than 40 interactive tools including symptom checkers, quizzes, calculators and information features. Embedding tools is simple, although access to your website structure is required.

Videos

Access more than 900 videos, which can be embedded into your site as easily as adding a YouTube video, either directly from NHS Choices, or via a configured multiplayer.

Government and local authorities

Evidence shows that many people turn to their council for information on general health and local health services. Reforms to the NHS mean that councils are expected to take up more responsibility around health in the community, which means more people will turn to their local councils for information advice.

With Services near you, NHS Choices offers councils an opportunity to incorporate a comprehensive directory of NHS and other health and social care services to their website. All directories and information are regularly updated by NHS Choices and all updates are automatically fed into your platform.

Live Well brings in a wealth of public health based topics, such as stopping smoking, advice on fitness, and seasonal content, such as winter health, into your website or mobile application.

Common health questions help provide a database of the most commonly asked health questions, and can provide instant answers on topics such as dental costs, how to register with a GP, and travel vaccinations.

More than 130 councils have so far signed up to use NHS Choices content on their websites, with more joining every month.

NHS organisations

Syndication allows you to take content from NHS Choices and embed it into your own site, providing you with up-to-date trusted health information free of charge. Many organisations use NHS Choices to provide their end users with valuable information, meaning they don’t have to procure or replicate readily available content. With the changes to the NHS structure, syndication is an ideal way to utilise health information with minimum effort and cost.

Charities

We work with a number of charities, from large national organisations, to smaller local ones. Whatever the size of your organisation, we have content and data to assist, from videos on caring for someone, to data directories listing organisational information. For an example of how some of our partners use our content, see Mind’s pages on stress, and The Children’s Trust brain injury hub.

Last reviewed: 08/05/2013

Next review due: 08/05/2015

What is RSS?

Read about RSS and find out what feeds are available for NHS Choices

Syndication – Brent council

Syndication – AOL UK