Diabetes Record Information Standard
Defines the information needed to support a person's diabetes management and care. The sub-set, the Diabetes Self-Management Information Standard, is included.
Contents
- Documentation
About this standard
- Publisher
- NHS England
- Reference code
- DAPB4085 Amd 59/2022
- Publication date
- 6 April 2023
- Status
- Active
Show definitions of statuses
Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.
Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.
Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.
- Standard type
- Information standards
Show definitions of standard types
Collections. A Collection is a systematic gathering of a specified selection of data or information for a particular stated purpose from existing records held within health and care systems and electronic devices.
Extractions. An extraction is a type of collection that is pulled from an operational system by the data controller and transmitted to the receiver without additional processing or transcription by the sender.
Information standards. Information standards are agreed ways of doing something, written down as a set of precise criteria so they can be used as rules, guidelines, or definitions.
Technical Standards and specifications. Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.
- Contact point
england.standards.assurance@nhs.net
Using this standard
The Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) were commissioned by NHS England to develop the following set of resources. These have been migrated into the NHS Standards Directory and will be managed by NHS England from 01 January 2026.
- Associated medias
- Describes the purpose, methodology and stakeholder engagement for developing the standard, along with the findings and recommendations for further work.
- List of newly published SNOMED CT concepts (UK release) supported in the diabetes standards.
- These profiles define a subset of information relevant for different scenarios.
- Summarises the hazards which could result from implementing the standard.
- Details the potential hazards from implementing the standard with their risk rating and mitigation.
- This document includes general implementation guidance.
- The conceptual architecture report documents how current and proposed national IT infrastructure and services can be used to support people with diabetes and those who care for them.
- Report detailing implementation support and analysis.
- Survey findings and analysis.
- These data definition templates can be used by suppliers or providers in the development of screens and forms for systems compliant with the diabetes record information standard. A step-by-step guide to help suppliers and organisations implement the standard.
- Applies to
- All service providers involved in the care/support of people with diabetes
- Ambulance services
- Care homes (nursing and residential)
- Community-based services
- General Practice
- Hospices
- Acute care services
- Mental health services
- Urgent and emergency care
- Impacts on
- Implementation of this information standard impacts all health IT systems suppliers providing systems to health and care professionals involved in the direct care of people with diabetes.
- Effective from
- 1 March 2023
Topics and care settings
- Topic
- Care records
- Key care information
- Care setting
- Community health
- Dentistry
- Hospital
- Maternity
- Mental health
- Social care
- Urgent and Emergency Care
Dependencies and related standards
- Dependencies
- Related standards
- National Diabetes AuditDCB2235
- National Diabetes Audit – Core Collection (NDACore)DCB2235-01
- National Pregnancy in Diabetes Audit (NPID)DCB2235-02
- National Diabetes Footcare Audit (NDFA)DCB2235-03
- National Diabetes Inpatient Audit (NaDIA)DCB2235-04
- National Diabetes Inpatient Audit: Harms collection (NaDIA-Harms)DCB2235-05
- National Diabetes Audit
Review Information
- Scope
- Health Services, NHS Services, Social Care
- Sponsor
Ben McGough, Digital Lead NHS Diabetes, NHS England
- Senior Responsible Officer
Professor Partha Kar, National Specialty Advisor, Diabetes and co-lead of Diabetes Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT), NHS England
- Business Lead
- Sarah Jackson, Project Manager, PRSB
- Contributor
- Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB)
- Approval date
- 28 February 2023
- Post Implementation review Date
- 31 March 2025
- Technical Committee
Data Alliance Partnership Board (DAPB)
Legal basis
- Link to Information Standards Notice (ISN)
- View the information standards notice
Information Standards Notices (ISNs) are published to announce new or changes to information standards published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
- Legal authority
Section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
This information standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
- Licence information
This standard is owned by NHS England and is made available for reuse or amendment under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL 3.0).
- Licence
Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL 3.0) https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
More information
There are approximately 4.8 million people living with diabetes in the UK and this is expected to rise to 5.3 million by 2025. It is a condition that is predominately self-managed and people with diabetes need education and support from health and care professionals across multiple care settings. People are increasingly using medical devices to help manage their diabetes. These include devices for monitoring glucose and delivering insulin.
It is important that health and care professionals can access information about a person with diabetes and the data from the medical devices they are using to enable them to provide the best advice and support but this information is often not available or easy to view in one place.
Information about a person’s diabetes is not all being digitally shared between the different professionals involved in their care. For example, information recorded by community nurses or podiatrists is not always available to GPs or hospital doctors and information such as latest HbA1c test results are not always shared across systems. This means that a person may be asked back for repeat tests.
Digital and technological innovations are delivering tools and devices to help people better self-manage their diabetes and the number of people offered them is growing, but it can be hard for people to understand and interpret the data and they may need help with this. Professionals are unable to bring together data from different devices to have a complete view.
There is inconsistency in use of codes to record information related to a diabetes diagnosis, there are a number of similar SNOMED CT codes and it is not clear which codes should be used particularly when there is an indeterminate diagnosis.
The Diabetes Record Information Standard defines the information needed to support a person’s diabetes management. It includes information that could be recorded by health and care professionals or the person themselves that is relevant to the diabetes care of the person and should be shared between different care providers.
Development of the standard included defining a ‘view’ of the key information to support the care of a person self-managing their diabetes. The Diabetes Self-Management Information Standard Model defines information that could be recorded by the person (or their carer) at home (either using digital apps or medical devices) and shared with health and care professionals.
These standard is based on what professionals and people with diabetes have told us that they want recorded and shared.
Scope- The standard was developed with UK wide consultation and engagement to meet the needs of all four UK nations.
- The standard is intended for all types of diabetes mellitus (except ‘prediabetes’).
- The standard was designed to support the 9 care processes for diabetes (glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), blood pressure, cholesterol, urinary albumin, serum creatinine, weight, foot checks, retinal screening and smoking status), glucose monitoring and insulin dosing.
- The standard covers all ages including children.
- The standard includes the information needed by health and care professionals about family planning and pregnancy to manage the diabetes but not everything needed to manage the pregnancy. The Maternity Record Standard sets out the information structure and content for managing a pregnancy.
- The standard is relevant for a wide variety of healthcare settings including primary care, secondary care and community and social care settings (e.g. care homes and domiciliary care).
- The National Diabetes Audits (for adults and children) were considered in the development of this standard with the aim of enabling information recorded for the purposes of direct care to be reused for the audit
- Prisons, schools, police and armed forces – some of the information in the standard may work for some of these settings but it was not tested in consultation.
- How the information should be presented to the person viewing it e.g. graphs or summary dashboards or who should be able see or change what information.
- A definition of where the information should come from, how it should be processed and how and where it should be stored.
Page last updated: 18 December 2025