iRefer CDS – continuous improvement

February 14, 2024

iRefer CDS has now been live at SWB for 12 weeks. The system uses the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) guidelines to support clinical decision making and help ensure our patients receive the most appropriate investigation.

To date, iRefer CDS has provided guidance and recommendations for over 48,000 Imaging requests and has resulted in over 2,500 requests being cancelled or changed, at the point of request, to a more appropriate investigation based on the decision support provided.

Whilst the RCR guideline catalogue is comprehensive, we are continuing to improve and add to the indications list and associated guidance to ensure the system works as best as possible for us.

As part of this, the iRefer CDS project group will be meeting with specialties over the next 6 months to look at the most common indications and to create and/or amend guidance and recommendations that appear within iRefer CDS. It is important to develop clinical engagement to ensure all pathways are available within the system.

In addition to this, using the “Submit Free Text” button within iRefer CDS flags where an indication and guidance needs to be created or amended and helps change and improve the system for future requests.

If the primary reason you require does not appear via the search bar, please type the reason in full and submit as free text using the orange “Submit Free Text” button as shown below.

Please do not choose a reason that is not relevant. Putting irrelevant information into the system could introduce clinical risk at both the vetting and reporting stages.

Should you have any other feedback on how we can continue to improve the system, please use the submit feedback button on the left side of the window.

Further information is available on Connect