Black Pear · Reference

Glossary

Plain-English definitions for the NHS, FHIR, and interoperability terms we use across our products and documentation.

Interoperability standards

FHIR(Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources): HL7 standard for exchanging electronic health information. Models clinical concepts (Patient, Observation, Condition, etc.) as resources accessed over a RESTful API with JSON or XML payloads. Black Pear builds on FHIR R4. Reference →
HL7(Health Level Seven): Standards organisation that defines healthcare data-exchange formats, including HL7 v2, CDA, and FHIR. Reference →
IM1(Interface Mechanism 1): NHS England framework that governs how third-party systems integrate with GP clinical systems such as Optum (EMIS) and TPP SystmOne. IM1-assured integrations allow safe, real-time read and write access to the GP record.
OpenID Connect: Identity layer on top of OAuth 2.0 used by NHS and many cloud services for authentication, including by NHS Login and CIS2.

NHS Spine: The national set of secure backbone services — including demographics, electronic prescriptions, e-Referral, and the Summary Care Record — run by NHS England to connect NHS organisations in England.
NRL(National Record Locator): NHS England service that points clinicians to where a patient record lives across NHS care settings. Used by Black Pear to share ReSPECT, eTEP, and EPaCCS documents nationally. Reference →
PDS(Personal Demographics Service): Authoritative NHS national database of demographic information for every patient in England. Used to look up NHS numbers and basic patient details.
NHSMail: NHS-approved secure email service for health and social care. Black Pear Core integrates with NHSMail for notifications and referrals.
ICB(Integrated Care Board): Statutory NHS organisation in England that plans and commissions healthcare services for a defined geographic population. Replaced Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in July 2022.
CCG(Clinical Commissioning Group): Former NHS commissioning body in England, superseded by Integrated Care Boards in 2022. Still referenced in historical documentation.
NHS Number: Unique 10-digit identifier assigned to every patient registered with the NHS in England, Wales, or the Isle of Man. Used as the primary key across all shared-care systems.

Optum(formerly EMIS / EMIS Web): GP clinical system used by approximately half of English GP practices. Owned by Optum — EMIS was rebranded to Optum following its acquisition — but most of the NHS still refers to it as EMIS. Black Pear Core integrates with it via IM1-assured partner APIs. Reference →
SystmOne: GP and community clinical system from TPP used by the majority of GP practices not on Optum (EMIS). Black Pear Core integrates with SystmOne via IM1-assured partner APIs.
Vision: GP clinical system from Cegedim, used by a smaller share of English GP practices. Supported by Black Pear Core.

EPaCCS(Electronic Palliative Care Coordination System): Digital system that records the wishes and care plans of patients approaching the end of life, so clinicians across settings see the same plan in real time. Black Pear delivers EPaCCS through regional shared-care records.
ReSPECT(Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment): Process that creates a personalised recommendation for clinical care in a future emergency when the person lacks capacity. The ReSPECT form captures the plan and is shared via NRL. Reference →
eTEP(Electronic Treatment Escalation Plan): Digital form used by Somerset ICB, powered by Black Pear SIDeR+, that captures a patient's agreed ceiling of treatment and escalation plan for sharing across acute, community, and primary care.

SIDeR(Somerset Integrated Digital electronic Record): Somerset ICB's shared care record, powered by Black Pear. Aggregates structured data from acute, community, social care, and GP systems.
SIDeR+: The next-generation evolution of SIDeR — the UK's only shared-care record to deliver real-time structured data from both EMIS and SystmOne GP, as well as acute, community, and social care systems.
Black Pear Core: Primary-care data layer providing real-time, bidirectional access to EMIS, SystmOne, and Vision via IM1-assured integrations and HL7 FHIR. Underpins every other Black Pear product.
QuickFHIR: Black Pear's turn-key FHIR server offering, available on AWS Marketplace. Designed to get organisations on FHIR in as little as 15 minutes.
Pyrusium: Desktop layer that links Black Pear apps to the active patient in the GP clinical system in real time. Enables in-context read and write-back without switching windows.
Core Connect: Remote counterpart to Pyrusium: read and write access to the GP record from anywhere, including community and virtual-ward settings.
Core Cloud: Black Pear's AWS-hosted storage layer for care plans. Each customer has a secure, sandboxed area with elastic capacity.
Core SDK: Toolkit that converts existing NHS forms into FHIR resources so they can be shared using current interoperability standards.

DSPT(Data Security and Protection Toolkit): NHS-mandated annual self-assessment that organisations handling NHS patient data must complete to demonstrate compliance with the National Data Guardian's 10 data-security standards.
DCB0129: NHS Digital clinical risk management standard for the manufacture of health IT systems. Specifies how suppliers must assess and document clinical safety.
DCB0160: NHS Digital clinical risk management standard for the deployment and use of health IT systems by healthcare organisations.
GDPR(General Data Protection Regulation): EU/UK regulation on data protection and privacy. All Black Pear products are designed to be GDPR-compliant by default.