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Right Decision Service newsletter: March 2024

Welcome to the Right Decision Service (RDS) newsletter for March 2024. Please forward this newsletter to others who may be interested. They can contact olivia.graham@nhs.scot to be added to the circulation list.

Promotion and communication resources

Promotional flyers are now available in the Learning and Support area of RDS:

What is RDS and what impact does it have? (infographic)

General RDS flyer

Being a partner in my care: Realistic medicine app for citizens

Managing medicines for patients and carers app

Home care decisions app

Child protection app (South Lanarkshire HSCP)

All except the infographic are also available as editable Word versions. Please contact his.decisionsupport@nhs.scot if you would like Word versions.

Redesign and improvements to RDS

Search and browse improvements are progressing well and the plan is still to release these in mid-May. The first stages of work on archiving and version control are complete. User stories (requirements) are being defined for:

Deep linking to individual toolkit URLs/QR codes
Translating content from a structured Word document directly into RDS
Capability to review and edit changes made to shared content

New feature requests

These have all been compiled and effort estimated. Once the redesign work is complete, these will be prioritised in line with the remaining budget. We expect this to take place around late June.

Evaluation

A big thank you to all of you who have completed our Impact and Value questionnaire. The data from this will be really helpful in informing the first draft of the business case for long term provision of the RDS. This will be reviewed by the National Advisory Board for RDS later this month.

We welcome further responses. If you haven’t yet completed the survey, please follow this link, and please encourage other RDS toolkit leads and users to do so.

New toolkits

A few examples of toolkits published to live in the last month:

Optimising glycaemic control in people with type 1 diabetes (SIGN 170)
Angus – Living well with dementia and Orkney – Living well with dementia – see https://dementiawellbeing.scot.nhs.uk . These are localised versions of the Living well with dementia toolkit originally developed with Inverclyde HSCP. There is also a generic “Living well with dementia – for everyone” toolkit. Please use the mobile app versions for the full functionality of the interactive Dementia wellbeing diary and Getting to Know Me form. Contact decisionsupport@nhs.scot to discuss creating further localised versions.

Toolkits in development

Some of the toolkits the RDS team are currently working on:

Updates to the Respiratory prescribing guidance and Manage Medicines for patients and carers toolkits
Respiratory Managed Clinical Network Pathways
Child abuse pathways in NHS Tayside
Patient information leaflet collection in NHS Borders
Referral management toolkit for NHS Borders
NHS Lothian – Infectious diseases; Acute oncology guidelines; Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Emergency Care.

Please contact his.decisionsupport@nhs.scot if you would like to learn more about a toolkit. The RDS team will put you in touch with the relevant toolkit lead.

Learning opportunities

The RDS Learning working group is progressing with developing training resources for editors, and intend to have resources to share by end of June. This includes resources for:

Each stage of the development journey for RDS toolkits – Scoping to Implementation/Evaluation and Maintenance.
RDS content governance.
Core functionality – learning bytes.

Editor webinars

Just a reminder that we are offering webinars for existing and potential new editors on the following dates:

Wednesday 10 April 3.30-4.30 pm
Thursday 18 April 12-1 pm

To book for one of these webinars, please complete the registration form at https://forms.office.com/e/eGjKqNVjeF

Quality audit

Many thanks to all of you who have met with me recently to complete or clarify your responses to the quality audit survey at the end of last year. Work to complete the quality audit for all toolkits published on RDS prior to November last year will continue for the next few months.

Implementation projects

The RDS team is now working with Moray HSCP to evaluate impact of the new RDS toolkit “Preventing progress of diabetes” (https://preventdiabetes.scot.nhs.uk ) to support people at high risk of diabetes type 2 and those who are candidates for remission. We are looking at the impact of use of the app with SMS prompts on people’s readiness for lifestyle change over an 8 week period. This includes comparing impact in people who have a call with a dietitian in addition to using the app to people who only use the app.

If you have any questions about the content of this newsletter, please contact us on his.decisionsupport@nhs.scot.

With kind regards

Right Decision Service team

Healthcare Improvement Scotland

The Psychological Therapies Services is a Pan Highland service within the NHS Highland Board covering all of the Highlands and Argyll & Bute. It is managed in four separate Operational Units, North, West, Inner Moray Firth, and Argyll & Bute and is dedicated to providing services for the alleviation of psychological and emotional problems. It is open to all people in NHS Highland irrespective of their age, background, culture, sexual orientation and race. It is dedicated to providing high quality services and is governed by principles of the NHS, NHS Highland Board, and the ethical codes of the professionals who work within it.