Improving the quality of your Pharmacy First consultations

After NPA members voiced concerns about insufficient clinical support for Pharmacy First and challenges in securing referrals from GP surgeries, the NPA approached primary care clinical platform software creator DemDx in search of a solution. The result is a pharmacy-specific product tailored to the seven key clinical conditions in the Pharmacy First scheme, which is currently undergoing live pilot testing in community pharmacies.

In order to develop the software, DemDx began by having conversations with community pharmacists about the record-keeping challenges they were facing with Pharmacy First. It then built on its existing clinical platform – which supports advanced clinical practitioners with 29,000 evidence-based pathways leading to more than 2,100 diagnoses – to develop the DemDx Pharmacy First clinical digital tool. 

Using step-by-step assessments covering the exclusion and gateway criteria as well as the examinations required for the seven Pharmacy First conditions, the tool integrates with within a pharmacist’s workflow. It includes an automatic note builder that allows editable notes to be recorded and shared across multidisciplinary teams. There are also bite-sized learning resources and videos to guide pharmacists through examinations and clinical techniques. 

DemDx pathways also offer direct access to NICE guidelines, patient information leaflets and NHS England clinical pathways, while integrated scoring tools like FeverPAIN and NEWS2 enable quick calculations directly within pathways.

More confidence in referrals

“Our purpose is to enable faster, more consistent, digital AI powered medical decisions to improve treatment for patients whilst reducing pressure on healthcare resources,” explains DemDx founder and chief executive Dr Lorin Gresser. “By streamlining clinical workflows to enhance the quality, safety and efficiency of consultations, we were able to create something which not only supports pharmacists in delivering exceptional care but also builds trust with GPs, encouraging them to confidently refer more patients to pharmacies.”

The pilot began in August in 15 pharmacies initially for four weeks, but it has been extended and will continue until the end of December.

User feedback has seen DemDx streamline the system to remove unnecessary steps and add in more images and training to support less common diagnoses. Participating pharmacists have praised the platform’s ability to enhance patient care and revenue opportunities.

“If we don’t use the DemDx platform during consultations, we risk missing important clinical details,” says Adeel Sarwar from Roundhay Pharmacy in Leeds. “It is a great safety net and it is easy to copy things over.”

Prabjaudt Channa, superintendent pharmacist at Priory Pharmacy in Orpington, says the note writing feature in particular “has been praised by GP colleagues for its clarity and conciseness, delivering the relevant information they need in an easy-to-read format”.

Still open for sign-ups

DemDx is actively looking for more pharmacies to pilot DemDx Pharmacy First until the end of the year, with sign-ups completed before the end of December guaranteed a reduced introductory price of £10 a month for the first six months. The company is also working on a new product for pharmacist independent prescribers. 

“We’ve been asked whether we have a similar digital tool for minor illness consultations,” says DemDx deputy clinical director Rachel Gregg. 

“We realised there is an opportunity here, so we are developing a minor illness DemDx product with the input of some senior pharmacists to create an extended list that isn’t as narrow as the PGDs to assist IPs in their assessment of minor illness. We are planning to release this in early January 2025, so stay tuned.”

• For more information, visit demdx.com or email info@demdx.com