In this instalment of our development update, we share with our PKB community what we’re doing to enhance the user experience for our customers and users this month.
Our priorities this month include:
- Updating the user interface and email templates
- Developing the EMIS extract service integration.
Measurements screen updates
We are making some changes to the measurements screens to improve the experience for users when viewing and adding measurements. This includes optimising pages for small screens.
The layout of the ‘Add measurements’ page will clearly show key information and fields. We will also add a new search function so that users no longer have to scroll through the list of items, and related items will be displayed together so users can add groups of measurements at once if they wish to do so.
Pulmonary function measurements can be sent via HL7
We are expanding the list of measurements that can be sent via HL7. This month, we are adding the following pulmonary function measurements:
- Forced vital capacity (FVC)
- Forced expired volume in 1 second (FEV1)
- Forced expiratory volume in 1 second / Forced vital capacity percent (FEV1/FVC)
- Forced expired volume in 6 seconds (FEV6)
- Forced expiratory flow rate between 25+75% of vital capacity (FEF25-75)
This allows new spirometry devices to send data to PKB.
Restarting EMIS extract service
We are continuing to process GP data from the EMIS extract service. The extract service has not been operational for the last few months while EMIS has been moving to SNOMED CT codes.
Other developments ongoing from September:
Appointments and Consultations screen improvements
We are continuing to update the ‘Appointments’ and ‘Consultations’ screens, including changing the ‘Start consultation’ pop-up, as described in our September blog. We hope to release these changes this month.
Enabling users to stayed logged in
Last month, we started development work to enable users to stay logged in after 25 minutes of inactivity. This change was released earlier this week.

Hidden consultations
In last month’s blog, we described the work that we’re doing to hide old consultations from patients. This change was released earlier this week.

Email notification improvements
We have been reviewing the text of our email notifications sent to patients following a CSV upload of patient demographics to a team. These email notifications are the first communication that a patient receives from the team when the patient is invited to register with PKB so it’s important that they are clear and easy to follow. We will begin to implement changes to these templates from this month.
API for date of the latest datapoint
We are building an API that will give organisations the date that the most recent data point was added to a patient’s record. This development will continue throughout October.
FHIR API for record creation and demographic updates
Work is continuing on a FHIR API that will allow organisations to create patient records, invite patients to register by email and update patient demographics. This work will continue for the rest of this quarter. Please refer to our specification for more details.
September review
The following changes were also introduced in September but not highlighted in our last blog:
New typeface introduced
We have updated the typeface used across all pages to offer users a more contemporary look and feel across the platform.


Updated error message for NHS App users
We have improved the error message shown if the application fails during the authentication process when a patient tries to log into PKB using NHS Login.
That’s it! We look forward to sharing details about more new features and updates next month. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more please get in touch.