OpenPrescribing Newsletter May 2019

Varied implementation of UTI prescribing guidelines

One of our recent papers, published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, highlighted variability in the speed at which different CCGs switched from prescribing trimethoprim to nitrofurantoin (as recommended by PHE for uncomplicated UTI).

It appears that the practices which changed the most were in CCGs that had taken some action to promote the new guidelines, such as a change in formulary. What are the implications? Read more on this in our blog and you can of course see any region’s performance on this measure on OpenPrescribing.

If you’re interested in these kinds of questions, maybe you’d like to work with us! Read on…

Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s annual conference

Ben gave the keynote address and Brian hosted a workshop on data driven care. We had lots of interesting discussions about variation in prescribing, medicine formularies and primary care networks.

If you have any ideas about these topics or feedback about the event please get in touch at bennett@phc.ox.ac.uk.

File on 4

In a recent BBC radio programme Ben talks about our work into recent opioid prescribing. Listen here.

Clinical Pharmacy Congress — come and meet us

Brian will be delivering a talk at the Clinical Pharmacy Congress on June 7th about delivering data driven care and will be available afterwards to answer all OpenPrescribing questions. Come say hello! Places in the theatre are limited so please reserve your space quickly.

OpenPrescribing comes to you

If you are running an event locally for doctors, pharmacists, nurses or anyone interested in using data to improve care, please contact bennett@phc.ox.ac.uk. Brian, one of our pharmacists, is available to come to your event over the coming months.

Regional and STP Dashboards — User Testing

Have you used our regional or STP dashboards? If you have used them or work for a regional or STP organisation, we would love to hear from you to be part of our user testing. You can read more about how we run user testing here and volunteer by contacting bennett@phc.ox.ac.uk.

New CCGs April 2019 — update your alerts

At OpenPrescribing we map all prescribing data onto current CCGs, which means that after April’s data release next month you will see all of those newly formed this financial year.

If you are signed up for regular email alerts for any CCGs which merged this April, you may wish sign up for your new CCG’s alerts now via <openprescribing.net/ccg>. Use the “unsubscribe” link in your latest alert to stop getting them for the old organisation(s).

Any problems do get in touch at bennett@phc.ox.ac.uk.

OpenPathology update!

We have made progress with OpenPathology and have updated the OpenPathology website with information on how your region can get involved. Please check it out.

In case you missed it…

• Great news for SystmOne practices! SystmOne have added an OpenPrescribing button to your home screen, allowing easy access to review your prescribing versus every other practice in the country. If the button does not appear automatically on your SystmOne toolbar:
  • Right click on the toolbar and select “Configure toolbar”.
  • Select the folder “URLs & Programs”
  • Select OpenPrescribing.net Practice Dashboard
  • It the OpenPrescribing button does not appear in the configuration please contact your local system administrator.
• In the media: We were pleased to see our data used in a recent report on opioid prescribing by the BBC.
• New measures: we are looking for ideas for new measures. You can submit ideas via this [simple form], or check out our blog for more information.

Latest Blogs

• Intuitive, impactful data presentation: Check out our new blog on why we use deciles to communicate variation in prescribing data.
• Openness and transparency: At OpenPrescribing we think openness and transparency is a key ingredient in good analysis. Read more about how we practice what we preach here.

Prescribing Data Update!

We’ve updated OpenPrescribing with March’s data. Head over to openprescribing.net to explore.

Clinical Trials and Brexit

We’ve done some investigating into the apparent drop in UK trials registered in the EU trial register (EUCTR) — is it Brexit having an impact? Read more here.

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