Wednesday 11th September 2024

Feature updates

1. Accessibility improvements to radio button and checkboxes

We have updated our input fields (such as radio buttons and checkboxes) and their corresponding labels to be closely aligned with proper padding and spacing. These updates ensure users can easily identify which label is associated with which input, improving the overall experience by making forms easier to read and interact with.

2. Team professionals can lock plans

Team professionals can now lock plans, leaving them non-editable for patients and carers. When a professional has locked a plan, the patient and carer see a message telling them which professional and which team locked the plan and the ‘Edit’ button is greyed out. Plans can be unlocked by any team professional that has access to the plan.

Bug fixes

1. Error adding a patient to team via single sign-on

We have fixed an issue that prevented a professional accessing a patient record via single sign-on from adding that record to their team or breaking the glass to view the record.

2. Attaching files with no file extension to plans will not cause an error

Users can now attach files with no file extension to plans without that resulting in an error when saving the plan.

Feature updates

1. Privacy notice updates

We have modified the text in the NHS services section of our Privacy notice in line with NHS England updates. See https://wiki.patientsknowbest.com/space/MAN/4062118010/Privacy+Notice+UK#NHS-services.

2. Accessibility improvements to radio button and checkboxes in plans

We have updated our input fields (such as radio buttons and checkboxes) and their corresponding labels to be closely aligned with proper padding and spacing. These updates ensure users can easily identify which label is associated with which input, improving the overall experience by making forms easier to read and interact with.

3. Preventing last minute appointment requests

Patients using the appointment messaging feature can only request to cancel or modify an appointment 72 hours before the appointment.

4. User’s full name now shown on plans

We now display the full name of the user who created or edited a plan to eliminate any ambiguity.

5. Email notification preferences - usability update

We have modified the ‘Email notification preferences’ section on the Profile page to improve usability. These changes include updating the header for consistent styling and navigation with a screen reader. We have also added the word ‘events’ to the list of time-sensitive emails.

6. Email notifications footer text updated

We removed the following lines from all email notifications sent to patients “For timely and important messages such as appointment changes we notify you immediately. You get at most one email per day about other new data added to your record.” We removed these lines as we now have an option to unsubscribe from email notifications that are not time-sensitive. New text was added to the footer as part of that change.

7. Advanced questionnaires can be sent to patients with no email address

Advanced questionnaires can now be sent to patients with no email address in their record. These patients will see the questionnaire in their record and can complete it after they register.

8. Medications endpoint

Organisations can now delete medications via the Custom REST API using the DELETE endpoint. See our Swagger documentation for the specification of this endpoint.

Bug fixes

1. Medicines REST API endpoint

We have resolved an issue which caused medicines that had been updated via the REST API with a patientOnMedication value of ‘false’ to be visible in the PKB UI. Medicines with a patientOnMedication value of ‘false’ will no longer be visible in the patient’s record.

2. Appointments

We have resolved an issue which caused appointments to display out of order on the Appointments page. Upcoming appointments are now listed in ascending date order and past appointments are listed in descending date order. Appointments on the notifications panel are listed in order of last updated.

New features

1. Image files can be sent via an MDM T02 care plan message

Image files of any type, e.g. png and jpeg can now be sent via a HL7 MDM T02 care plan message by setting the Data type (OBX-5.2) to ‘IMAGE’ and the Sub-data type (OBX-5.3) to an image file type e.g. ‘PNG’. The images are contained within the Action Plan section on the Plans page and can be both viewed and downloaded.

2. Audio files can be sent via an MDM T02 care plan message

Audio files of any type, e.g. mp3 and m4a can now be sent via a HL7 MDM T02 care plan message by setting the Data type (OBX-5.2) to ‘AUDIO’ and the Sub-data type (OBX-5.3) to an audio file type e.g. ‘MP3’. The audio files are contained within the Action Plan section on the Plans page and can then be downloaded.

3. Sections of care plans can be marked as only editable by professionals

This new feature allows sections of care plan templates to be designated as exclusively editable by team professionals. When such templates are utilised, sections marked as non-editable can only be modified by team professionals, including those outside the specific team to which the plan belongs. Patients, carers, and individual professionals are restricted from editing these designated sections but can continue to update the rest of the plan.

Feature updates

1. Updates to placeholder & label text for phone numbers

We have added placeholder text in the phone number fields on both the ‘Profile' page and the ‘Invite patient’ page.

We have also updated labels on the phone number fields on the 'Invite patient’ page.

2. Unregistered patients will get an email notification when a plan is added to their record via the HL7 API

Unregistered patients will now get an email notification when a plan is added to their record or updated via the HL7 API. This behaviour already applies for plans added or updated via the PKB User Interface.

Bug fixes

1. Individual professionals can now send a message on behalf of patient to a team professional

We have resolved an issue which prevented an individual professional sending a message on behalf of a patient to a professional who are part of a team.

2. Improvements to handling of phone numbers retrieved via REST API

We have fixed an issue which prevented phone numbers being extracted via the REST API if they were not marked as primary.

3. Patients with no date of birth in their record can now complete advanced questionnaires

Previously, patients with no date of birth in their record would hit a page crash when attempting to open an advanced questionnaire request from an email notification. This is because patients have to provide their date of birth before answering the questions. Now, the patient will be shown an error message stating that they need to register before completing the questionnaire because their record has no date of birth.

Technical Improvements

We are improving the performance of an internal service used in a data cleanup process.

New features

1. DICOM images can now be sent via an ORU R01 message

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) images can now be sent via a ORU R01 radiology report by setting the Data type (OBX-5.2) to ‘APPLICATION’ and the Sub-data type (OBX-5.3) to ‘DICOM’.

2. M4A audio files can now be sent via HL7 MDM T02 document message

M4A (MPEG-4 Audio) audio files can now be sent via HL7 MDM T02 document message. They will be displayed on the ‘Events & messages’ page and can be played directly on the page or downloaded to play on an external player.

3. Patients can now set their email notification preferences

Patients can now choose whether they want to receive email notifications about all new data added to their records or limit their notifications to time-sensitive changes only. These preferences can be managed from the ‘Profile’ page. All email notifications will include a link to manage email notification preferences. More information is available in the PKB manual.

Feature updates

1. Coordinator patient search controls

We have updated the coordinator patient search screen to only enable the action buttons at the bottom of the patient list if at least one patient has been selected.

2. Removal of symptom alarms

We have removed the alarm function from symptom monitoring. Coordinators no longer see the fields to set weighting and alarms on the symptoms page and professionals no longer have a monitoring tab.

Teams can still monitor symptoms. This feature has not changed. A team can choose which symptoms their patients should be prompted to monitor and in what order they should be displayed.

3. QRISK3 measurements

The following measurements can now be added and viewed in the Vitals section on the Measurements page, for more information please see our manual.

• QRISK3 10 year cardiovascular disease risk score

• QRISK3 healthy heart age

Bug fixes

1. Library upload limit set to 5GB

We have resolved an issue to allow users to upload files up to 5GB in the library section, for more details please see How do I upload a file to the library?

2. Carer invites

We have resolved an issue that prevented users with PKB’s 2FA enabled from accepting a carer invitation via an email link. Users who have PKB’s 2FA enabled can now accept the invitation from the carer invitation email link.

3. Data not showing for patients using NHS login after coordinator initiated password reset

We have resolved an issue which prevented certain patients from seeing their data when they logged in with NHS login. This issue only occurred when a password reset had been initiated by a team coordinator and the password was reset by the patient. Patients were still able to access their data by using their PKB username and password to log in.

4. Symptom tracking

We have resolved an issue which made it mandatory for coordinators to specify an order of symptoms when setting up symptom tracking. Coordinators can now set up symptom tracking without setting an order.

Technical Improvements

We are reverting to a fully manual certificate rotation process for our HL7 API. This update is in preparation for the next upcoming certificate rotation at the start of September, additional communication on this will be sent in due course. We expect no user impact from this update.

New features

1. New Welsh manual

When a user changes their language to Welsh, the existing help links will direct the user to a new Welsh PKB manual, https://cymru.patientsknowbest.com/.

2. New QRISK measurements

We have added 2 new measurements:

• QRISK3 10 year cardiovascular disease risk score

• QRISK3 healthy heart age

These measurements can be added via our HL7 API and tracked in a plan. In the next release, it will be possible to add and view these measurements in the Measurements section.

Feature updates

1. Questionnaire links now included in the response when sending a questionnaire via FHIR API

We now include a personalised questionnaire link in the ServiceRequest returned when an organisation sends a questionnaire to a patient via the $send-questionnaire-request endpoint. This is the same link that is added to the patient’s email notification. Organisations can send this link to patients using other communication methods, such as via SMS. To read more about this, see the advanced questionnaire API specification.

Bug fixes

1. Users can now edit privacy labels for data sent by partner organisations

We have resolved an issue that prevented users from successfully updating privacy labels for data sent on behalf of a Partner organisation via HL7.

2. Users can now add the same telephone number to multiple fields

We have fixed an issue that was preventing users from adding the same number to different phone number fields on the Profile page.

3. Appointments with any FHIR appointment status can now be viewed

We have resolved an issue that caused an error to be shown to the user on the Appointments screen when an organisation added an appointment to their record with the following appointment status values via the FHIR API: entered-in-error, checked-in, waitlist. If these statuses are now used, we will show the appointment.

Features

1. Support for multiple phone numbers

We have expanded the phone number fields in patient records to allow users to add four distinct telephone number types, allowing for a more comprehensive approach to communication. Users are able to mark which of the telephone numbers is the primary number to streamline contact and ensure that others can easily reach the patient when it matters most.

Updating telephone numbers is very simple. Patients can follow these easy steps to take advantage of our enhanced Profile page:

1. Log into your PKB record

2. Navigate to the settings page

3. Locate the ‘Phone Numbers’ section

4. Enter the type of number you want to add into the corresponding field (mobile, home, work or other)

5. Use the radio buttons to select which of the phone numbers should be treated as your primary number

6. Enter your password and click ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page

2. Updating mandatory fields on the ‘Profile’ page

We have updated some fields on the ‘Profile’ page to no longer be mandatory. The following fields are now optional:

• Title 

• Address line 1

• City 

• County, province or state 

• Postcode 

• Gender

3. Consultations renamed to Questionnaires in the professional and coordinator UI

The ‘Consultations’ page for professionals and coordinators is being renamed to ‘Questionnaires'. The ‘Start consultation’ button will now say ‘Send questionnaire’ and all references to ‘consultations’ in the professional and coordinator UI will now refer to ‘questionnaires’. Patients will still see a ‘Start consultation’ button in their record, as by initiating a questionnaire they are consulting their team online. You can read more about these changes and other upcoming changes in our blog post.

Bug fixes

1. Issue with phone number constraint preventing some users from registering

We have fixed a bug that prevented some patients from completing registration. A record can have one phone number of each type but if an additional phone number was added to a record via HL7, this constraint was violated causing an error state that blocked registration.

2. Advanced questionnaires

We have resolved an issue which meant that clinical teams belonging to PKB Organisations with a comma in their name could not send advanced questionnaire requests via the $send-questionnaire-request operation. These teams can now send questionnaire requests.

Bugs fixes

1. DOB patient registration issue when selecting a date in September

We have resolved an issue with verifying a date of birth in September during patient registration.