Wider RDS developments

PROMs/PREMs platform 

The team has now completed the public and clinical stakeholder engagement sessions and are using the recommendations from these to inform our continued development of the platform. Planning is also well underway for the initial piloting, which will be happening in the coming months. 

Word to Web conversion 

The new RDS functionality which will allow for the automated conversion of Word guidelines into structured and formatted RDS toolkits is now nearly complete. The team are preparing to present this to the SIGN team for use with their guidelines, and are beginning to explore the possibility of using this functionality with other guideline types. 

Improving searching and browsing for medicines information 

This improved functionality is nearly ready to go through User Acceptance Testing (UAT). After this has been completed, the team will begin work on indexing current RDS content so that it can be more effectively searched and browsed. 

Notifications for new medicines information 

This new functionality will allow RDS users to register for notifications when new medicines information is added to or edited on the platform. The requirements for this have been agreed, and development is underway. 

Please get in touch with maria.cordero2@nhs.scot if you have any questions or comments about this work. 

A prototype for a standalone web app providing pharmacogenomics decision support is being tested as part of the European IMPROVE pharmacogenomics project. The web app solution is scheduled for delivery at end of June 2026. 

Design work and planning for integration of pharmacogenomics decision support into the Vision primary care electronic health record system for evaluation in NHS Tayside is in progress, with an estimated delivery date of September 2026. 

A community of practice is being developed, to bring together patient and public representatives, practitioners and policy makers across the three countries involved in the IMPROVE project to share learning and facilitate improvement work. A core steering group has been created to lead this development, and options for a digital platform for the community are being evaluated. The plan is to appoint a knowledge manager within the RDS team to manage this community of practice and to provide the programme with wider knowledge management support. 

Final fixes and improvements are being made to this system, and the logistics for piloting in NHS Lanarkshire are being finalised.  

The University of Dundee primary care research team has now started to analyse the impact of this decision support embedded in Vision and EMIS in NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside. We expect their report in July 2026. 

We learned during April that the Right Decision Service is a partner with NHS Lothian, NHS Lanarkshire and the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre in Scotland’s successful bids for funding from the UK Research and Innovation Obesity pathway innovation programme. RDS will play a leading role in delivering clinical, patient-facing and shared decision-making support for new obesity pathways. Further information to follow