In this instalment of our development update, we’ll provide an overview of what we’re doing to enhance the user experience for our customers and platform users this month.
Our priorities over this month include:
- Integration with other software suppliers, such as EMIS and Servelec.
- Improving our registration workflow.
Social care integration
Development has begun to integrate with Servelec’s Mosaic software. This is part of NHS Digital’s ‘Digital Social Care Pathfinders Programme’ which encourages greater collaboration between health and social care.
The development will enable us to display social care data that has been recorded in Mosaic within patients’ PKB records. We expect this functionality to be available in early 2021. At that stage, it will only be available for patients in London.
Restarting EMIS extract service
We are continuing our development work to restart processing GP data from the EMIS extract service. The extract service has not been operational as EMIS has been moving to SNOMED CT codes. However, we expect this will be operational by the end of the year.
Sharing page updates
We’re making some changes to the ‘Professionals’ screen found in the ‘Sharing’ section to improve the experience when viewing or editing what access other users have. This includes optimising the pages for small screens.
FHIR API date of last datapoint
We’ll be enhancing the FHIR ‘date of last datapoint’ API so that an organisation can query patients based on PKB ID. This builds on last month’s release which introduced the API with national ID support.
NHS App integration enhancements
Patients with an existing Patients Know Best (PKB) record can access parts of their PKB record from within the NHS App, and can use NHS Login’s encrypted single sign-on to do so. This option is available to users on a regional basis where the region has specified that PKB is their Patient Held Record Provider.
In October, we added links to the PKB Tests, Journal and Symptoms pages from the NHS App. This month, we’re adding a link to the PKB Measurements page. We are also updating the ‘Back’ button on all the existing links so that it will return users to the specific areas in the NHS App rather than the previous page.
Limit on the number of times a date of birth can be entered during identify verification
This month we are adding a restriction to the number of attempts a user can make when entering their date of birth to verify identity while registering.
For increased security, when a user is completing registration they will be locked out for 5 minutes if they incorrectly enter the date of birth after 10 attempts.
Easier creation of CSV file for onboarding multiple patients
We’ll be making some changes to our ‘Add many patients’ CSV template that can be uploaded for mass record creation.
First, columns can be in any order in the CSV as long as each column has the correct name. All columns are optional, except first name, last name and one of the identifiers. This change means creating the CSV will be simpler.
Additionally, it will be possible to include patients’ middles names in the CSV when creating or adding patients to a team.
For more information about the ‘Add many patients’ feature, please refer to our manual.
Clearer email notifications for existing patients when added to new teams
Based on user feedback, we have updated the text of email notifications sent to existing patients when they are added or invited to a new team. The patient will be clearly told which team has added or invited them and the email includes the privacy access that the team has gained access to, or requested access to.
For full details about email notifications, please refer to our manual.
Supporting information for patients adding measurements or devices
We are adding supporting information to the ‘Add measurement’ and ‘Add device’ pages to inform patients that any data they enter will not be seen automatically by their clinical team.
The text will state: ‘Your professionals will not automatically see new information. If you have immediate concerns about your health it is important that you contact them directly.’
New measurements and symptoms
‘Capillary refill time’ will be added to the measurements section of PKB. We will add the following symptoms: bad breath and bad taste in mouth.
October review
Our October blog listed all the new features that were released last month. However, the following features were also released in October but not covered in the blog:
Removing support for iOS versions below 10.0
The minimum iOS Versions supported by PKB is now 10.0 (iOS is an Operating system used for mobile devices manufactured by Apple Inc). Anyone using a version older than this, will see a new warning to inform them that some functionality may not work properly and advise them to use an alternative version i.e. iOS 10.0 and above.
New navigation menu for tests and measurements
We added a new style of navigation menu for both the date range selection on the ‘Tests’ and the category selection on the ‘Measurements’ page if the user is on a small screen. The menus now appear as a dropdown menu on small screens to ensure we present all the options in a clear and easy to use format.
New respiratory measurements for home spirometery
We added three new measurements:
- FEV1/FVC (Forced expiratory volume in one second/Forced vital capacity percent)
- FEF 25-75 (Forced expiratory flow rate between 25 and 75% of vital capacity)
- FEV6 (Forced expired volume in 6 seconds)
We have also updated units for FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in 1 second) from l/min to Litres, FVC (forced vital capacity) from l/min to Litres & PEF (peak expiratory flow) from l/s to l/min.
For more information on what measurements we currently support, please visit our developer documentation.
Changes to BMI measurement
BMI (Body Mass Index) is automatically calculated and displayed on the measurements page in PKB when both a height and weight are recorded for the user. We will now display the source of the height and weight information alongside the BMI entries. We have made this update to help users understand where the BMI measurement comes from, and how it was calculated.
Previous BMI source field
New BMI source field
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.
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