# Step by step guide

This guide covers the different options available to you for integrating messaging through the Hero API.

### 1. Retrieve your patient

In all cases, a patient context is required.

To generate your Hero patient ID, you will need to run our RegisterPatient call. This accepts NHS number and DOB inputs, runs a lookup against PDS then checks the underlying health record for your practice. If not found, Hero will attempt to register a temporary patient using the details retrieved from the Spine.

The Hero patient ID returned in the response can then be passed to the SendMessage call.

### 2. Send message

SMS
In this example, you can send SMS content using Hero. Messages will be sent using the practice's configured SMS provider (e.g. Firetext).

Email
This example shows you how to send an email using Hero. Messages will be sent from Hero's configured email provider (AWS SES).

Hero
Hero-only messages are not designed to be sent to the patient via Hero's messaging integrations.

In this case, a message has already been sent to the patient externally and is sent to Hero's patient communications workflow as an audit log of the event with a view to being written to the underlying health record.

The message will appear in the Hero sent message log, flagged as Hero only, for clinician review. Once approved, the message can be written back to the patient's record.