NHS Scotland National Decision Support Programme & COVID19 Decision Support
About this good practice
The National Decision Support Programme for the Scottish Government, led and managed by DHI in partnership with 3 Scottish NHS Boards and Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) responded to the COVID19 pandemic by developing several decision support solutions for healthcare professionals:
A. Guideline apps for:
Delivery of local COVID19 guidance in 3 Scottish Health Boards – released at different times between April & December 2020 providing up-to-date guidelines & information support for clinicians delivering healthcare to patients with suspected COVID19. The first COVID19 guidance app was released in 1 week.
Delivery of national guidance from the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network within HIS for primary care assessment of COVID19 and management of Long COVID.
B. A patient app to support self-management of Long COVID. This includes a symptom diary which enabling patients to track changes in their symptoms. Generating a report showing how their symptoms have changed over time and they can share this report with healthcare professionals.
All applications were built within DHI's existing Right Decision Service platform which enables rapid development of tools using publication-ready predefined templates & functionality, without requiring programming skills.
The Long COVID professional & patient-facing apps were developed using a co-design approach, engaging closely with professional and patient groups and working through prototypes, alpha and beta versions.
Resources needed
‘Right Decision Service’ technology infrastructure and knowledge management expertise to design knowledge architecture and populate apps.
Clinician and patient time to collaborate with knowledge managers.
Funding of £20,000 was moblised for knowledge management time, app hosting and maintenance.
Evidence of success
500-1000 users per month per app.
Safer, more timely and consistent patient care, reducing unwarranted variation and consequent patient harm. For these reasons, the tools received excellent feedback from clinicians.
Potential for learning or transfer
Provide clarity on the need and benefit of person specific support and of medical device responsibilities at the outset of development.
Collaborate closely with knowledge managers in health boards and with clinicians who have a strong sense of ownership over the service.
As part of the co-design approach, work through iterations of wireframes and prototypes during consultation with user groups to focus and enhance the discussion.
Partnership with Healthcare Improvement Scotland as the national body for evidence and guidance products in NHS Scotland was key to giving credibility and authority to the national COVID tools.