Custom NTA 7516 integration development
NTA 7516 is NEN's Dutch technical agreement for secure email in healthcare. It sets requirements for exchanging personal health information by email and chat, between healthcare providers and between providers and clients. If you want your EHR, portal or own application to send and receive messages directly through an email service that complies with NTA 7516, you need an integration. Appfront builds it, so your staff no longer export and email by hand.
What is an NTA 7516 integration?
An NTA 7516 integration connects your own system to an email service that meets the standard for secure email in healthcare. NTA 7516 was published by NEN in 2019 and, according to NEN, applies to all forms of ad hoc exchange of personal health information between two or more people, such as email and chat, including within a messaging portal. The standard contains concrete requirements for availability, integrity and confidentiality, while also taking ease of use into account. A key principle is interoperability between different solutions: just as with ordinary email, a message must arrive even if the recipient uses a different provider.
In practice, a healthcare organisation sends many messages that originate in a system: a letter or report from the EHR, a test result, a referral, a message from the client portal or an attachment to a handover. Without an integration, these are exported, saved and placed by hand in a secure email environment, and replies come back in separately. The integration lets your system prepare and send the message through the email service of your choice, and files whatever comes back under the right client or record. It logs for each message what was sent, to whom and with what result.
We build custom integrations because every organisation uses different systems and a different email service. Which integration options the provider offers, how recipients are verified and which messages may be sent automatically, we establish with you and the provider in the first step. NEN is working on a revision commissioned by the Ministry of Health (VWS): a NEN 7516 standard with separate technical agreements for email and chat. According to NEN's work programme of November 2025, it is still a draft. We build the integration so that changes after the revision only need to be made in one place.
From your system
Messages without exports.
Built to the standard
Through a compliant service.
Back in the record
Replies in the right place.
How we build your NTA 7516 integration
We start with your message flows: which messages currently come from which system, who they go to, which email service you use and where staff export and retype. We then agree with the email service provider how the integration connects and build the first flow, usually the messages that most often go by hand, such as letters or reports from the EHR. You test it with real messages sent to a small group of recipients. Other flows, such as incoming messages or the client portal, follow once that works well. After that, we maintain the integration when the standard, the email service or your systems change.
Messages, systems, recipients.
The biggest time saving first.
Replies in the record.
Go-live, monitoring, and maintenance when things change.
What an NTA 7516 integration actually does
The components below appear in almost every secure email integration. Which ones you need depends on your systems and on the messages you want to automate.
Sending
Messages from your system.
Receiving
Replies filed with the record.
Recipients
Address and person verified.
Attachments
Reports and letters attached.
Access
Permissions per role.
Log
Every message traceable.
Who we build an NTA 7516 integration for
The integration is intended for healthcare organisations that send many messages containing health information that originate in their own system. The more messages and recipients, the more it delivers.
Healthcare organisations
Letters and reports from the EHR.
Practices
Messages to clients.
Laboratories
Results to requesters.
Software builders
Secure email within your software.
Technology and integrations
This page covers integrations with an email service that complies with NTA 7516, regardless of the provider. If you work with a specific product, see our pages on the ZorgMail integration and the Zivver integration. For securing your email domain, see our page on DNSSEC, DMARC, DKIM and SPF, and for structured exchange with other care providers, the Wegiz integration. You can read about our approach on building software.
Why Appfront for your NTA 7516 integration?
A report that is exported and manually placed into a secure email environment, a reply that sits in a shared mailbox, or a message that goes to the wrong recipient costs a care organisation time and trust. That is what we build around: messages that leave directly from the system, verified recipients and a log where you can see exactly what happened.
Less manual work
No exporting and pasting.
Right recipient
Verified before sending.
Visible
Every message in the log.
Security and privacy in an NTA 7516 integration
The integration processes personal health information, which falls under the strictest rules of the GDPR. It sends only what the message requires, via an email service that complies with NTA 7516, uses a dedicated account with exactly the permissions it needs, and records every message with time, recipient and outcome, without storing the content in the log.
The integration runs in a European data centre, with encrypted connections and storage. Keys and passwords are kept secured and are not visible to staff. We agree with you in advance which messages may be sent automatically and which are first reviewed by a staff member.
Frequently asked questions about an NTA 7516 integration
Questions that care organisations, application administrators and care software suppliers ask before getting started.
NTA 7516 is a Dutch technical agreement from NEN for secure email in healthcare, published in 2019. It sets functional requirements for exchanging personal health information between care providers and between care providers and clients, for example by email. Chat also falls within its scope.
A connection between your own system, such as an EHR, client record system or portal, and an email service that complies with NTA 7516. Your system then sends messages with attachments itself, and replies come back to the right client or record. Staff no longer need to export or transfer anything.
The conditions under which secure email is possible: requirements for availability, integrity and confidentiality, with attention to ease of use. It also covers exchange between different solutions, so a message arrives even when the recipient uses a different provider.
Yes. NEN is working on behalf of the Ministry of Health (VWS) on a NEN 7516 standard with separate technical agreements for email and chat, and on a new certification scheme. According to NEN's work programme of November 2025, the new standard is still a draft. We will keep the integration up to date when the revision takes effect.
Those pages cover a single product and its capabilities. This page covers the integration from the standard's perspective: which email service you use determines how we connect. If you have not yet made a choice, it helps to first know which messages you want to automate.
The integration retries automatically and places a message that keeps failing in an error list, together with the reason. You can see which message and which recipient is affected, and once you have corrected the problem you can send it again. That way no message is left unnoticed.
For organisations that send many messages from their own system, want to send messages to clients from a portal, or, as a supplier, want to build secure email into their software package. If you only send the occasional message by hand, the provider's own email environment is usually enough.
Secure email from your own systems?
Tell us which messages you currently send by hand and which email service you use. We will show you how an integration takes that over.