Health Education England has extended their national subscription to BMJ Best Practice to include the Comorbidities Manager for all NHS staff and learners in England.
In the UK alone one in three patients admitted to hospital as an emergency have five or more conditions. This poses a significant problem for healthcare systems. Clinical guidelines only focus on single conditions, but failure to treat the whole patient leads to worse clinical outcomes, and longer lengths of stay. The global COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the problem with over 60% of patients admitted to intensive care units having comorbidities.
The BMJ Best Practice Comorbidities Manager supports the management of the whole patient by including guidance on the treatment of a patient's acute condition alongside their pre-existing comorbidities.
Health Education England provides BMJ Best Practice as a practical tool to help NHS staff and learners meet the changing and more complex needs of patients, and maximise NHS resources, together resulting in better care for patients.
Patrick Mitchell, Director of Innovation, Digital and Transformation, HEE, said
"Health Education England funds BMJ Best Practice nationally so that all NHS staff and learners in England have access to a tool which supports evidence-based clinical decision making. We are very pleased to have been able to add the new Comorbidities Manager to the national provision, to inform decision-making in scenarios where a patient presents with an acute condition but also has chronic conditions, helping members of multidisciplinary teams, including our trainees, in their shared endeavour to treat the whole patient."
"By giving frontline staff this and other digital tools we can ensure they get the most up to date, evidence based knowledge at their fingertips, driving digital transformation from board to bedside."
Louise Crowe, Director of Knowledge, BMJ, said:
"We are thrilled to see how BMJ Best Practice is positively impacting the daily practice of health professionals across England. So much so, that this has led to the decision to upgrade the subscription to include the Comorbidities Manager. With 97% of users in a recent independent study saying it improved their practice, I have no doubt it will provide a valuable tool for all those who use it. At BMJ, everything we do has the ultimate aim of supporting health professionals and this enhancement is a huge step in allowing us to do that effectively."
BMJ Best Practice is the only Clinical Decision Support tool that has been procured at a national level for England. Please visit bestpractice.bmj.com
