DiG is a digital service for healthcare professionals based on the inpatient diabetes guidelines developed by the Joint British Diabetes Societies.
DiG is a suite of digital products that makes the guidelines freely and easily accessible from any digital device.
It supports healthcare professionals to make good decisions about how best to care for their patients.
Research
Junior doctors and non-specialists are the most frequent users of the diabetes guidelines. Junior doctors have notoriously difficult jobs that involve working extremely long hours for several days in a row. From day one they are expected to make important decisions about patient care.
In emergency situations, where a delay can mean the difference between life and death, they are expected to find critical information quickly.
Almost everyone we spoke to told us their own story of having to make a critical decision at 3am in the morning when they were exhausted, panicked and were struggling with severe decision fatigue.
In some situations they were unable to get hold of a more senior colleague to get a second opinion so the guidelines were their only option.
The current guidelines are difficult to access, difficult to understand and as a result are massively under-utilised.
In emergency situations, they should be the first point of call for urgent help and advice.
We spent a lot of time shadowing, interviewing and talking with staff at Norwich and King’s College Hospitals.
In Norwich, we were able to spend a few days shadowing staff to understand how, when and why they use the guidelines.
Insights
Solution
Based on our research, our aim was to make the current guidelines as accessible to junior doctors and non-specialists as possible.
Our solution needed to work across a broad spectrum of situations where healthcare staff might not always have direct access to a computer.
It was important that our solution would support doctors and nurses to make good decisions under pressure so that they could deliver better care to patients.
As a result of our design, the guideline creation and sharing process has been streamlined too, meaning that important information is spread much more quickly and reliably.
Our solution is a cloud based platform and data repository for all core guideline data. The DiG digital platform.
All the data that’s collected is tagged and categorised so that it can be deployed in a more responsive and intuitive way.
The DiG supports several web services and applications and the digital guidelines can be accessed from any digital device
Hard copies of guideline information can also be generated to support those functions within the hospital that still rely on them.
The DiG platform is easy to integrate into the current IT infrastructure and can be seamlessly deployed on existing technology, making the transition quick and easy.
Website Demo
The DiG website is the perfect way for junior doctors and medical students to access the guidelines in their entirety. It enables them to find everything in one place and to search for specific information.
The website allows them to save chapters, make notes and comment on specific guidelines.
Users are able to share useful information with their colleagues or save it across their own devices so that it’s easy to access later on.
App-Demo
The DiG app is the perfect way for doctors to access the guidelines during an emergency situation. It enables them to quickly find the information they need to make a decision on how best to care for their patient If a patient is admitted with DKA, teams need to act quickly to make sure the patient receives the right treatment. The DiG app gives clear and easy to follow steps on the best course of treatment based on the inpatient diabetes guidelines
The DiG platform will help to increase and redefine the current guideline user base.
By encouraging users to feed back on their experience of the guidelines, they become more than just users. They become contributors who have a say in how the guidelines are created.
By leveraging existing data and supplementing this with contextual user and analytics data, the DiG platform opens up new opportunities to attract new partners.
For example, medical schools currently reference the guidelines in their teaching materials but there is a huge opportunity to develop core learning modules through the DiG platform.
Another example is that JBDS relies on experts who volunteer their time to help create guidelines. The DiG platform could encourage more active participation from members of the healthcare community who might not have considered being involved before.
The DiG platform is people-focused, value-focused and inclusive.
It is people-focused because:
It’s main aim is to reduce harm to patientsAnd to make staff feel supported in their jobs
It adds value by:
Saving hospitals money and resources by reducing hospital stays and readmissions through better inpatient careIt supports innovation by collecting user feedback and using this to facilitate creation of better guidelinesIt reduces the time taken to publish guidelines by improving how information is sharedAnd It will broaden the reach of JBDS, increasing visibility and influence
It’s inclusive because:
It’s accessible to anyone, anywhereIt gives users a chance to provide feedback on specific guidelinesIt supports health literacy through ubiquitous language which makes the guidelines easier to understand