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Asthma pathway (BTS, NICE, SIGN) [SIGN 244]
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Right Decision Service newsletter: October 2024

Welcome to the Right Decision Service (RDS) newsletter for October 2024.

1.Contingency arrangements for RDS outages

Development of the contingency solutions to maximise RDS resilience and minimise risk of future outages is in progress, aiming for completion by Christmas. As a reminder, these contingency arrangements are:

Optimising mobile app build process
Mobile app always to be downloadable.
Serialising builds to mobile app; separate mobile app build from other editorial and end-user processes
Load balancing – provides failover (also enables separation of editorial processes from other processes to improve performance.)

In the meantime, a gentle reminder to encourage users to download essential clinical toolkits to their mobile devices so that there is an offline version always available.

2. New deployment with improvements.

A new scheduled deployment with minor improvements drawn from support tickets, externally funded projects, information related to outages, and feature requests will take place in early December. Key improvements planned are:

Deep-linking to individual toolkits within the RDS mobile app. Each toolkit will now have its own direct URL and QR code, both accessible from the app. These can be used to download the toolkit directly where users already have the RDS app installed. If the user does not yet have the RDS app installed, they will be taken to the app store to install the app and immediately afterwards the toolkit will automatically open and download. Note that this will go live a few days later than the improvements below due to the need to link up the mobile front end to the changes in the content management system.
Introducing an Announcement Header field to replace the hardcoded "Announcements and latest updates" text. This will enable users to see at a glance the focus of new announcements.
Automated daily emptying of the recycling bin (with a 30 day rolling grace period) in the content management system. A bug preventing complete emptying of the recycling bin contributed to one of the outages earlier this year.
Supporting multiple passcodes (ticket 6079)
Expanding accordion section to show location of a search result rather than requiring user coming from a search result to manually open all sections and search again for the term.
Displaying first accordion section Content text as a snippet on the search results page as a fallback if default/main content is not provided
Displaying the context of each search result in the form of a link to the relevant parent tool/section. This will help users to choose which search result is most likely to be appropriate for their needs.
As part of release of the new national benzodiazepine quality prescribing guidance toolkit sponsored by Scottish Government Effective Prescribing and Therapeutics, a digital tool to support creation of benzodiazepine tapering/withdrawal schedules.

We are also seeking approval to use the NHS Scotland logo and title for the RDS app on the app stores to help with audience engagement and clarity around the provenance of RDS.

3. RDS Search, Browse and Archive/Version control enhancements

We are still hopeful that user acceptance testing for at least the Search and browse enhancements can take place before Christmas. Thank you for your patience and understanding in waiting for these improvements. Timescales have been pushed back by old app migration challenges, work to address outages, and most recently implementing the contingency arrangements.

4. Support tickets

We are aware that there continue to be some issues around a number of RDS support tickets, in part due to constraints around visibility for the RDS team of the tickets in the existing support portal. We are investigating the potential to move to a new support ticket requesting system from early in the new year. We will organise the proposed webinar around support ticket processes once we have confirmed the way forward with the system.

Table formatting

There is a known issue with alterations in formatting of some RDS tables which seems to have arisen as a result of the 17 October deployment. Tactuum is working on a fix and on implementing additional regression testing to prevent this issue recurring.

5. New RDS toolkits

Recently launched toolkits include:

NHS Lothian Infectious Diseases

Scottish Health Technologies Group – Technology Assessment recommendations

NHS Tayside Anaesthetics and Critical Care projects – an innovative toolkit which uses PowerAutomate to manage review and response to proposals for improvement projects.

If you would like to promote one of your new toolkits through this newsletter, please contact ann.wales3@nhs.scot

A number of toolkits are expected to go live before Christmas, including:

Focus on dementia
Highland Council Getting it Right for Every Child
Dumfries and Galloway Adult Support and Protection procedures
National Waiting Well toolkit
Fertility Scotland National Network
NHS Lothian postural care for care homes

6.Sign up to RDS Editors Teams channel

We have had a good response to the recent invitation to sign up to the new Teams channel for RDS editors. This provides a forum for editors to share learning, ideas and questions and we hope to hold regular webinars on topics of interest. The RDS team is in the process of joining participants to the channel and we’d encourage all editors to take part, using the registration form – available in Providers section of the RDS Learning and Support area.

7. Evaluation projects

The RDS team has worked with colleagues in NHS Grampian and the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre to evaluate the impact of the Prevent the progress of diabetes web and mobile app in a small-scale pilot project. This app provides access to local and national resources and services targeted at people with prediabetes, a history of gestational diabetes, or candidates for remission. After just 8 weeks of using the app, 94% of patients reported increased their knowledge and understanding of diabetes, and 88% said it had increased their confidence and motivation to make lifestyle changes, highlighting specific behaviour changes. The learning from this project is informing development of a service model based on tailored support for patient groups with, high, medium and low digital self-efficacy.

Please contact ann.wales3@nhs.scot if you would like to know more about this project.

Training sessions for new editors (also serve as refresher sessions for existing editors) will take place on the following dates:

Friday 29th November 3-4 pm
Thursday 5 December 3.30 -4.30 pm

To book a place, please contact Olivia.graham@nhs.scot, providing your name, organisation, job role, and level of experience with RDS editing (none, a little, moderate, extensive.)

To invite colleagues to sign up to receive this newsletter, please signpost them to the registration form - also available in End-user and Provider sections of the RDS Learning and Support area. 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.

With kind regards

Right Decision Service team

Healthcare Improvement Scotland

The Right Decision Service: the national decision support platform for Scotland’s health and care

Website: https://rightdecisions.scot.nhs.uk Mobile app download: Apple Android

This content is from the BTS, NICE and SIGN guideline - Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management, 2024

The NICE guideline on asthma was published in 2017 and BTS/SIGN last updated their asthma guideline in 2019. The guidelines overlap in the clinical areas included, and healthcare practitioners in the UK have been using both sets of guidance.

However, these guidelines differ in their approach to diagnosis. Concern has been raised about the recommendations to use fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) measurement and spirometry more widely, contained in NICE guidance. Likewise, there are significant differences in several aspects of the treatment approach in each. BTS, NICE and SIGN agreed that updating and unifying current guidance would be helpful for healthcare professionals.

This update to national asthma guidelines is timely for people with asthma and their healthcare teams. There have been various initiatives that aim to improve outcomes for people with asthma in the UK, but outcomes nevertheless remain poor. Mortality from asthma continues to increase in the UK, and it remains a leading cause of morbidity. According to the Office for National Statistics, there were more than 1,400 asthma deaths in the UK in 2018, an increase of 8% compared with 2017. For outcomes to improve, people with asthma need excellent, evidence-based care.

There are many uncertainties about the best way to diagnose, monitor and treat asthma. For example, there have been recent developments in our understanding of the value of physiological tests. Also, there are new options for the use of inhaled corticosteroids and what to do when treatment needs to be stepped up or down. The evidence in these areas of uncertainty has been reviewed and the relevant recommendations updated.