Skip to main content
BETA A NHS service powered by standards. Feedbackopens in a new window will help us improve.

Radiotherapy Data Set

Providers of NHS-funded radiotherapy services are required to submit a monthly return on their delivery of radiotherapy treatments.

Documentation

About this standard

Publisher
NHS England
Also known as
RTDS
Reference code
DAPB0111 Amd 84/2020
Publication date
20/07/2021
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
  • Collections
  • 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

Using this standard

Applies to
  • NHS acute providers of radiotherapy services.
  • All other providers of NHS commissioned radiotherapy services.
  • Purchasers of linear accelerator radiotherapy machines used in NHS cancer centres.
Impacts on
Implementation of this information standard impacts all developers and suppliers of health IT systems for use within NHS acute providers of radiotherapy services. Suppliers should work with their customers to determine necessary changes.
Associated medias
Conformance date
01/07/2022
Effective from
31/03/2022

Topics and care settings

Topic
  • Data definitions and terminologies
  • Reference data
Care setting
Hospital
Dependencies

No known dependencies.

Related standards

Review Information

Scope
NHS Services
Sponsor

Dr Brian Rous, Director of Tumour Classification, Public Health England.

Senior Responsible Officer

Sarah Stevens, Deputy Director, Public Health England

Business Lead
Andrew Murphy, Head of Cancer Datasets, Public Health England.
Approval date
07/07/2021
Post Implementation review Date
31/03/2023
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

  • NHS standard contract

    This collection is published under the NHS Standard Contract.

More information

The purpose of the Radiotherapy Data Set is to:

  • collect consistent and comparable data across all NHS acute trust providers of radiotherapy services and all private facilities where delivery is funded by the NHS
  • provide nationally comparable data to inform the planning, provision and commissioning of radiotherapy services across the NHS.

It has been a mandatory standard since April 2009 and collects information for every patient receiving treatment of:

  • external beam radiotherapy (teletherapy)
  • brachytherapy
  • proton therapy
  • radioisotope therapy (including radioiodine)
  • molecular radiotherapy.

Providers of radiotherapy services to the NHS are required to provide a monthly return to Public Health England on all activity.

The changes introduced by this release include:

  • the ability to structure the data into pathways, including specific sections for:
    • an episode
    • a prescription
    • a plan
    • an exposure
    • an attendance
  • the addition of:
    • SNOMED CT
    • unique radiotherapy coding
    • the measurement type to support the prescribed and the actual absorbed radiation dose
  • improved recording in respect of:
    • proton therapy
    • clinical trials that have a component of radiotherapy delivery included
    • treatment intent
    • route of admission
    • radiotherapy treatment type
    • specialist radiotherapy treatments
  • a new way of recording consultant information
  • the removal of the intention to change to xml submission
  • the addition of choices for linkage and radioisotope.

Other data items have been given better descriptions, amended formats or updated attributes to help improve both the data quality, ascertainment and linkage of data through the data set.

Page last updated: 30 July 2024