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Important: please update your RDS app to version 4.7.3 Details with newsletter below.

Please update your RDS app to v4.7.3

We asked you in January to update to v4.7.2.  After the deployment planned for 27th February, this new update will be needed to ensure that you are able to download RDS toolkits even when the RDS website is not available. We will wait until as many users as possible have downloaded the new version before switching off the old system for app downloads and moving entirely to the new approach.

To check your current RDS version, click on the three dots bottom right of the RDS app screen. This takes you to a “More” page where you will see the version number. 

To update to the latest release:

 On iPhones – go to the Apple store, click on your profile icon top right, scroll down to see the apps waiting to be updated and update the RDS app.

On Android phones – these can vary, but try going to the Google Play store, click on your profile icon top right, click on “Manage apps and device”, select and update the RDS app.

Right Decision Service newsletter: February 2025

Welcome to the February 2025 update from the RDS team

1.     Next release of RDS

 

A new release of RDS is planned (subject to outcomes of current testing) for week beginning 24th February. This will deliver:

 

  • Fixes to mitigate the recurring glitches with the RDS admin area and the occasional brief user interface outages which have arisen following implementation of the new distributed technology infrastructure in December 2024.

 

  • Capability to embed content from Google calendar, Google Maps, Daily Motion, Twitter feeds, Microsoft Stream into RDS pages.

 

  • Capability to include simple multiplication in RDS calculators.

 

The release will also incorporate a number of small fixes, including:

  • Exporting of form within Medicines Sick Day Guidance in polypharmacy toolkit
  • Links to redundant content appearing in search in some RDS toolkits
  • Inclusion of accordion headers alongside accordion text in search result snippets.
  • Feedback form on mobile app.
  • Internal links on mobile app version of benzo tapering tool

 

We will let you know when the date and time for the new release are confirmed.

 

2.     New RDS developments

There is now the capability to publish toolkits on the web with left hand side navigation rather than tiles on the homepage. To use this feature, turn on the “Toggle navigation panel” option at the top of the Page settings menu at toolkit homepage level – see below. Please note that publication to downloadable mobile app for this type of navigation is still under development.

The Benzodiazepine tapering tool is now available as part of the RDS toolkit for the national benzodiazepine prescribing guidance developed by the Scottish Government Effective Prescribing team. The tool uses this national guidance developed with a wide-ranging multidisciplinary group. This should be used in combination with professional judgement and an understanding of the needs of the individual patient.

3.     Archiving and version control and new RDS Search and Browse interface

Due to the intensive work Tactuum has had to undertake on the new technology infrastructure has pushed back the delivery dates again and some new requirements have come out of the recent user acceptance testing. It now looks likely to be an April release for the search and browse interface. The archiving and version control functionality may be released earlier. We’ll keep you posted.

4.     Statistics

At the end of January, Olivia completed the generation of the latest set of usage statistics for all RDS toolkits. If you would like a copy of the stats for your toolkit, please contact Olivia.graham@nhs.scot .

 

5.     Review of content past its review date

We have now generated reports of all RDS toolkit content that has exceeded its review date by 6 months or more. We will be in touch later this month with toolkit owners and editors to agree the plan for updating or withdrawing out of date content.

 

6.     Toolkits in development

Some important toolkits in development by the RDS team include:

  • National CVD prevention pathways – due for release end of March 2025.
  • National respiratory pathways, optimal cancer diagnostic pathways and cancer prehabilitation pathways from the Centre for Sustainable Delivery. We will shortly start work on the national cancer referral pathways, first version due for release via RDS around end of June 2025.
  • HIS Quality of Care Review toolkit – currently in final stages of quality assurance.

 

The RDS team and other information scientists in HIS have also been producing evidence summaries for the Scottish Government Realistic Medicine team, to inform development of national guidance around Procedures of Limited Clinical Value. This guidance will in due course be translated into an RDS toolkit.

 

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

  • Friday 28th February 12-1 pm
  • Tuesday 11th March 4-5 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

 

 

Headache is one of the commonest problems seen in both primary and secondary care:

  • General Practice: 4.44 consultations/100 registered patients
  • Neurology: 20-25% of referrals

Global Burden of Disease study ranks headache disorders as the second leading cause of years lived with disability worldwide

One-year prevalence of headache disorders is 50%:

  • Episodic tension type headache: 41% female, 40% male
  • Episodic migraine: female 18%, male 6%
  • Chronic daily headache: female 5%, male 3% 

Migraine alone is the leading cause of disability among people aged 15 to 49 years

  • In UK, an estimated 10 million people aged 16-65 experience migraine
  • 190,000 migraine attacks are experienced everyday, 100,000 are absent from work or school everyday, contributing to 43 million lost work or school days every year
  • 94% of primary care consultations for headache are due to migraine
    • Yet migraine is often not recognised and <20% of patients with migraine attain a diagnosis
  • Costs of migraine to UK: £8.8 billion

Pathway recommendations

This pathway has been developed to aid the assessment, diagnosis and management of common primary headache disorders and give guidance on when to consider secondary headache disorders.

Patients with headache disorders access care across the NHS and this pathway is intended to be relevant to those working across primary care including community pharmacy and general practice and those working across secondary care including emergency care, acute/general medicine and neurology.

It is split into 9 sections to allow easy access:

  1. Overview: National referral pathway; red, amber and green flag; diagnosis of common primary headaches; life style advice and useful guidelines
  2. Acute treatment of migraine: relevant to primary and secondary care
  3. Preventative treatment of migraine: migraine prophylaxis accessed in primary care and specialist options available in secondary care
  4. Open access CT from primary care, including information on incidental findings
  5. Management of migraine in pregnancy and lactation: including pre-conception advice
  6. Management of menstrual and peri-menopausal migraine
  7. Management of medication overuse headache
  8. Indomethacin sensitive headaches
  9. Cluster headache

 

References and further resources

  1. GBD 2016 Disease and Injury Incidence and Prevalence Collaborators. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 328 diseases and injuries for 195 countries, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet. 2017 Sep 16;390(10100):1211-1259. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32154-2
  2. Steiner T. All Party Parliamentary Group on Primary Headache Disorders, 2008
  3. Tepper SJ, Dahlöf CG, Dowson A, Newman L, Mansbach H, Jones M, Pham B, Webster C, Salonen R. Prevalence and diagnosis of migraine in patients consulting their physician with a complaint of headache: data from the Landmark Study. Headache. 2004 Oct;44(9):856-64. DOI: 10.1111/j.1526-4610.2004.04167.x
  4. Kernick D, Stapley S, Hamilton W. GPs' classification of headache: is primary headache underdiagnosed? Br J Gen Pract. 2008 Feb;58(547):102-4. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp08X264072
  5. Latinovic R, Gulliford M, Ridsdale L. Headache and migraine in primary care: consultation, prescription, and referral rates in a large population. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2006 Mar;77(3):385-7. DOI: 10.1136/jnnp.2005.073221
  6. The Work Foundation. Society’s headache - The socioeconomic impact of migraine. https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/lums/work-foundation/SocietysHeadacheTheSocioeconomicimpactofmigraine.pdf 

 

   gjnh.cfsdpmo@gjnh.scot.nhs.uk

  www.nhscfsd.co.uk

@NHSScotCfSD

Centre for Sustainable Delivery

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Editorial Information

Last reviewed: 11/10/2023

Next review date: 01/04/2025

Author(s): Centre for Sustainable Delivery.