Welcome to the Right Decision Service (RDS) newsletter for August 2024.
Following the recent RDS outages, Tactuum and the RDS team have been reviewing the learning from these incidents. We are committed to doing all we can to ensure a positive outcome by strengthening the RDS to make it fully robust and clinically resilient for the future.
We would like to invite you to a webinar on 26th September 3-4 pm on national and local contingency planning for future RDS outages. Tactuum and the RDS team will speak about our business continuity plans and the national contingency arrangements we are putting in place. This will also be a space to share local contingency plans, ideas and existing good practice. We would also like to gather your views on who we should send communications to in the event of future outages.
I have sent a meeting request for this date to all editors – please accept or decline to indicate attendance, and please forward on to relevant contacts. You can also contact Olivia.graham@nhs.scot directly to register your interest in participating.
2.National IV fluid prescribing calculator
This UK CA marked calculator is now live at https://righdecisions.scot.nhs.uk/ivfluids . It has been developed by a multiprofessional steering group of leads in IV fluids management, as part of the wider Modernising Patient Pathways Programme within the Centre for Sustainable Delivery. It aims to address a known cause of clinical error in hospital settings, and we hope it will be especially useful to the new junior doctors who started in August.
Please do spread the word about this new calculator and get in touch with any questions.
The following toolkits are now live;
We have updated and simplified this guidance within our standard operating procedures. We have clarified the guidance on how to determine whether an RDS tool is a medical device, and have provided an interactive powerpoint slideset to steer you through the process.
We have developed a guide to support editors and toolkit leads through the process of scoping, designing, delivering, quality assuring and implementing a new RDS toolkit. We hope this will help in project planning and in building shared understanding of responsibilities throughout the full development process. The guide emphasises that the project does not end with launch of the new toolkit. Implementation, communication and evaluation are ongoing activities throughout the lifetime of the toolkit.
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.)
7 Evaluation projects
Dr Stephen Biggart from NHS Lothian has kindly shared with us the results of a recent survey of use of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Anaesthesia toolkit. This shows that the majority of consultants are using it weekly or monthly, mainly to access clinical protocols, with a secondary purpose being education and training purposes. They tend to find information by navigating by specialty rather than keyword searching, and had some useful recommendations for future development, such as access to quick reference guidance.
We’d really appreciate you sharing any other local evaluations of RDS in this way – it all helps to build the evidence base for impact.
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
van der Zwaard, B.C., Poppe, E., Vanwanseele, B., van der Horst, H.E. and Elders, P.J., 2014. Development and evaluation of a leaflet containing shoe advice: a randomized controlled trial. Family practice, 31(3), pp.267-272.
Click here for Article
Mündermann, A., Nigg, B.M., Stefanyshyn, D.J. and Humble, R.N., 2002. Development of a reliable method to assess footwear comfort during running. Gait & posture, 16(1), pp.38-45.
Click here for Article
Bonanno, D.R., Murley, G.S., Munteanu, S.E., Landorf, K.B. and Menz, H.B., 2018. Effectiveness of foot orthoses for the prevention of lower limb overuse injuries in naval recruits: a randomised controlled trial. Br J Sports Med, 52(5), pp.298-302.
Click here for Article
Franklyn-Miller, A., Wilson, C., Bilzon, J. and McCrory, P., 2011. Foot orthoses in the prevention of injury in initial military training: a randomized controlled trial. The American journal of sports medicine, 39(1), pp.30-37.
Click here for Article
Larsen, K., Weidich, F. and Leboeuf-Yde, C., 2002. Can custom-made biomechanic shoe orthoses prevent problems in the back and lower extremities? A randomized, controlled intervention trial of 146 military conscripts. Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics, 25(5), pp.326-331.
Click here for Article
Loudon, J.K. and Dolphino, M.R., 2010. Use of foot orthoses and calf stretching for individuals with medial tibial stress syndrome. Foot & ankle specialist, 3(1), pp.15-20.
Click here for Article
Mündermann, A., Nigg, B.M., Stefanyshyn, D.J. and Humble, R.N., 2002. Development of a reliable method to assess footwear comfort during running. Gait & posture, 16(1), pp.38-45.
Click here for Article
Brief, J.M., Brief, R., Ergas, E., Brief, L.P. and Brief, A.A., 2009. Peroneal Nerve Injury with Foot Drop Complicating Ankle Sprain. Bulletin of the NYU hospital for joint diseases, 67(4), pp.374-7.
Click here for Article
Quacinella, M., Mazzone, B., Kuhn, K. and Wyatt, M., 2019. Use of the Intrepid Dynamic Exoskeletal Orthosis in the Management of Common Peroneal Nerve Palsy after Knee Dislocation. Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics, 31(1), pp.11-15.
Click here for Article
Bishop, D., Moore, A. and Chandrashekar, N., 2009. A new ankle foot orthosis for running. Prosthetics and orthotics international, 33(3), pp.192-197.
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Mulligan, E.P. and McCain, K., 2012. Common fibular (peroneal) neuropathy as the result of a ganglion cyst. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 42(12), pp.1051-1051.
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Myers, R.J., Murdock, E.E., Farooqi, M., Van Ness, G. and Crawford, D.C., 2015. A unique case of common peroneal nerve entrapment. Orthopedics, 38(7), pp.e644-e646.
Click here for Article
Presuto, M.M., Stickley, C.D., Perlsweig, K.A., Kimura, I.F. and Antoine, G.M., 2013. Long-Term Outcomes of a Dynamic Ankle-Foot Orthosis on Gait Characteristics of a Service Member With Incomplete Nerve Injury to the Lower Extremity: A Case Report. Military medicine, 178(7), pp.e870-e875.
Click here for Article
Shorter, K.A., Kogler, G.F., Loth, E., Durfee, W.K. and Hsiao-Wecksler, E.T., 2011. A portable powered ankle-foot orthosis for rehabilitation. Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development, 48(4).
Click here for Article
The orthotics evidence portal