OpenPrescribing Newsletter Summer 2019

New Feature! DM+D browser

This week we have launched a new browser for the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices, better known as dm+d. dm+d is the standard dictionary for the medicines and devices used across the NHS. At last count there were over 150,000 packs of medicines and devices described. You can read more about the dm+d in [this detailed blog]/blog/2019/08/what-is-the-dm-d-the-nhs-dictionary-of-medicines-and-devices/).

We have been using the dm+d browser internally for a while, and having found it very useful we believe it will come in handy for others too, so we have now made it available publicly for anyone to use. Read more about the tool here.

Feel free to pass the link on to colleagues and other tool developers who may find it useful to support their work. Also, please tell us what improvements you would like to see and what interesting things you are using it for.

Expansion of PPU Tool

We have reduced the minimum threshold on our Price-Per-Unit (PPU) savings tool. We originally set them at £50 per month for a practice and £1000 for a CCG. However, this meant that smaller CCGs weren’t being shown many savings, even where there may have been significant savings at one or two practices, and so we have reduced the thresholds to £10 per month for practices, and £200 for CCGs.

You can explore the potential PPU savings for your practice or CCG by clicking on “Savings on individual presentations” on your dashboard page.

PCN Dashboards — coming soon

We get lots of requests to show PCN groupings on the website. We’ve done some preparatory work behind the scenes but we cannot complete these dashboards without a list of PCN membership for England. We are hoping this will be released in the coming weeks so we can bring you PCN dashboards as soon as possible! Read more in our blog.

New and Extended Price Concessions Dashboards

As part of our ongoing expansion of our new dashboards for STPs and regional teams, we have now added price concessions dashboards (STP example; regional team example) so you can monitor the cost impact of products with “no cheaper stock obtainable” across these wider geographies.

Further, on all of our price concession dashboards for all organisations, the data now covers a longer period, 30 months (All-England example).

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 feedback@openprescribing.net. Brian, one of our pharmacists, is available to come to your event over the coming months.

OpenPathology - let us know if you want to hear more!

As you know we are now building OpenPathology.net modelled on OpenPrescribing: this will help everyone understand variation in use of blood tests across the NHS. There is lots of information on the OpenPathology website.

We have some exciting tools in the making and we have so much to talk about that we are launching a special OpenPathology newsletter!

To opt in: if you already subscribe to the present newsletter go to your last email newsletter and use the link at the bottom to update your preferences — just check the “OpenPathology.net” box. If you’re not subscribed to our OpenPrescribing newsletter, click here to register for OpenPathology and/or OpenPrescribing updates.

In case you missed it…

All the best bits from the previous newsletter

• New low-priority measures At the end of June, NHS England expanded their list of products not recommended to be routinely used in primary care. These new items are now included in our low-priority measures. They include bath and shower emollients, higher cost insulin pen needles and dronedarone. Explore here, or navigate to Low Priority measures from your organisation’s dashboard.
• New features on the Analyse page We added some exciting new features to the Analyse page:
  • View results for STPs and NHS Regions
  • Search at multiple levels of the BNF hierarchy together: for example combine quinolones, cephlasporins and co-amoxiclav into a single search.
• New! All England email alerts Our innovative custom email alerts for prescribing measures (also for price concessions, and custom analyses) tell you as soon as your prescribing starts to change in comparison to peers: this allows you to respond quickly. Prompted by user feedback, we have now developed this service for the national picture. To sign up, just go to the All England page and enter your email address in the box beside the measures categories, or read more in our blog. Get in touch to tell us your feedback!
• New CCGs and STPs All the new CCG and STP boundaries are all live on the site. You should find your email alert subscriptions have been updated accordingly. There are unsubscribe links in the emails if you no longer want them; any issues, get in touch at feedback@openprescribing.net.

Prescribing data update!

We’ve updated OpenPrescribing with May and June’s data. Head over to www.openprescribing.net to explore.

In other news…

The TrialsTracker team gave a popular workshop at the EBMLive conference in June with much positive feedback. We particularly enjoyed being captured in this comic-book-style narrative of the conference!

We also have an update to our previous blog on UK trials and how the registrations on EUCTR have been affected by Brexit. Read more here.

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