National cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and risk factors toolkit | Right Decisions

Right Decisions
National cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and risk factors toolkit

May 2025 RDS newsletter now available. Expand this announcement to view.

Welcome to the May 2025 update from the RDS team

1. RDS deployments

Three small-scale releases took place during April and May, including the following fixes and improvements:

Applying moderate severity security patch to Umbraco.
Fixes to:
- Random ordering of tiles on mobile app
- Simultaneous issuing of multiple copies of content review alerts
- Content display on mobile app for the left hand menu navigation option
Whitelisting of Jotforms outcomes pages so that recommendations for action can be displayed following completion of a form or calculation.

2. RDS performance

Two short outages took place on the mornings of 12^th and 22^nd May. Tactuum is still investigating the root cause and will report on this shortly.

3. Redesign of Gentamicin and Vancomycin calculator interfaces

New designs have been produced which make the health board name and calculator title clear to the user on these calculator pages, with a warning message and link to ensure users access the right calculator for their board. These designs have been implemented in a test environment and are now under review.

4. RDS Redesign, archiving and version control

We now plan to release at end of July 2025 the following major enhancements: redesigned Right Decision Service homepage, new search and browse interface, upgraded archiving and version control, and capability to edit content adopted from the Shared Content Library. We will provide slides and demos in advance of the release to introduce users and editors to the new functionality.

5. Training sessions for RDS editors

Introductory webinars for RDS editors will take place on:

Monday 16 June 12.30-1.30 pm
Tuesday 24 June 3.45-4.45 pm

Running usage statistics reports using Google analytics

Wednesday 11^th June: 2-3pm

To book a place on any of these webinars, please contact Olivia.graham@nhs.scot providing your name, role, organisation, title and date of the webinar you wish to attend.

6.New RDS toolkits

The following toolkits were launched during March 2025:

National cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and risk factors toolkit (Scottish Government CVD Steering Group and Preventative and Proactive Care Programme)
National quality of care review guidance – including interactive forms for self-evaluation and service improvement (Healthcare Improvement Scotland)

7.New RDS developments

Work is progressing on a number of decision support systems that are part of the wider Right Decision Service platform, beyond the web and mobile apps:

The Patient Reported Outcome Measures system. A minimum viable product version will be available for functional testing by key stakeholders at end of July.
Pharmacogenomics decision support as an extension of the current high risk prescribing decision support integrated with primary care electronic health record systems. This is part of a European research and innovation project.
Planned Date of Discharge decision support system to be tested in NHS Lanarkshire. Will undergo user acceptance testing in July with a view to piloting from November.

8. Implementation projects

Public library services in Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow Life, Angus, Falkirk and Stirling have come forward to work with the RDS team, the Scottish Library and Information Council and local Realistic Medicine leads, to develop their role in engaging citizens in Realistic Medicine. This includes promoting the Being a partner in my care app: Realistic Medicine Together. This provides tools and resources to support conversations about what matters to the person, shared decision-making and self-management.

If you have any questions about the content of this newsletter, please contact his.decisionsupport@nhs.scot If you would prefer not to receive future newsletters, please email Olivia.graham@nhs.scot and ask to be removed from the circulation list.

Cardiovascular diseases cause more than a quarter of all deaths in Scotland, the second most common cause of death after cancer. Scotland is predicting a 21% rise in disease burden by 2043 and a major cause of this increase is linked to CVD. Whilst some CVD figures have previously improved with the reduction in smoking, some of these are now rising again with the impact of obesity on our health, closely linked to prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.

We have now commenced a Scottish CVD Risk Factors programme which is part of a wider suite of work focusing on preventing and detecting ill health before it happens.

The programme’s mission is to:

Reduce CVD in Scotland, leading to improved life expectancy and healthy life expectancy for all - with a specific stretch aim – To reduce avoidable* CVD deaths by 20% in 20 years (*Deaths which are considered either preventable or treatable through public health interventions or timely and effective healthcare, under 75 yrs)
Significantly increase the identification and management of those with higher risk of CVD, and by using the approach of proportional universalism, reduce associated health inequalities
Improve early identification of key risk factors and work with people to reduce these risks and effectively manage these – either to reverse/lower their risks or by preventing an escalation to more significant disease (via increased citizen awareness/knowledge and via increased Healthcare professional preventative and proactive care)
Reduce risks earlier this will prevent conditions escalating to their acute or chronic stages and support sustainability of our health and social care systems.

About the Scottish CVD Risk Factors Programme

ASSIGN v2.0 - risk assessment tool

Blood pressure pathway

Lipid pathway

Glycaemia pathway

Obesity pathway

Smoking pathway

Wider risk scenarios and pathways

National guidelines

Proactive and preventative care cardiovascular disease directed enhanced service

Resources for citizens

About this toolkit