Below is the roadmap for June 2018 to March 2019 updated November 2018. (Click to see the original version). As usual, we adjusted priorities in response to the feedback of early adopter customers and we dug deeper into the details of each feature. 

The feature category of the PKB blog has details on the features we've released. The PKB blog also has archives of past roadmap postings. 

For questions about any of the features below please contact us. And if you are a developer, we're hiring!

Features released or in progress

Performance

We are continuing our focus on speed of page loading times. The more quickly PKB can show information to the user, the more often users choose to access the information which makes the patient's care more accurate and safe. You can monitor current page load speed on pkbstatus.com. Our approach is to optimise the whole platform that affects every single page rather than making changes to individual pages.

• In May 2018 we switched to AES encryption with a faster algorithm for storing and retrieving data: showing 5,000 test results used to take 5,000 1 ms decryption transactions, now it takes just one such 1 ms transaction.
• Through September and October 2018 we optimised the way that our database stores and returns clinical data. This has resulted in further improvements in data retrieval times across all pages but particularly those with large numbers of data points such as measurements and tests.
• In September 2018 we optimised our HL7 QRY A19 in response to issues encountered by customers. Previously the query was timing out when very large numbers of patients were returned (hundreds of thousands). The query now copes with this.

Mass registration and e-documents

PKB provides APIs for mass registration of patients using letters to each patient’s home and kiosks in outpatient clinics. 

• We will switch on email reminders for appointments at 2 days and 2 weeks before each appointment to reduce the number of patients who do miss their appointments.

Timeline view

The timeline view on the home page of a patient's record will combine data from multiple other pages all plotted against a horizontal x-axis. We will start with the professional's view of the patient's record and eventually add to the patient's view.

At the moment the discussions view shows past interactions with the health care systems, including secure messaging, clinic visits and hospital admissions. The calendar view shows appointments, defaulting to future ones and needing scrolling for past ones. Furthermore professionals and patients alike want to see their encounters and appointments alongside medical data such as symptoms, measurements, test results and care plans.

The timeline view will do this, giving a fast overview with click-throughs to details.

Features moved to January to June 2019 roadmap

Care planning

We will expand the current care planning functionality to fully support the PRSB's national digital care and support plan standard. Care and support planning is a defined process which helps people set their own aims and objectives. It helps to identify their strengths and assets, and the support that they need to achieve them. The care and support plan should demonstrate how the person’s aims and goals will be met. 

The lead providers to co-develop this standard were North West London's CCGs, who also use PKB for their Care Information Exchange, an integrated digital care record and patient portal. In liaison with the Care Information Exchange team we have produced our designs for the next iteration of our care plan functionality which complies with PRSB standards and beyond that supports the rich functionality our customers are asking for. If you would like to take part in the design and early roll out of the new functionality, please contact us.

The PRSB's standard identifies the "Care and support plan" as a new and critical part of the IDCR, along with the "About me" section and the "Contingency plan(s)" sections.

PKB's existing disease-specific care plan functionality will fit into the contingency plans section, with PKB's green, amber and red framework instructing patient and professionals what to do in different situations. PKB will add the holistic care and support plan section with structured workfow for tracking goals, tasks and contacts.

EMIS direct integration additional data

PKB already processes the following data from GP practices with EMIS:

• demographics
• diagnoses
• allergies
• medications

• appointments
• vaccinations
• consultations metadata (EMIS does not provide free text data)
• test results 

Appointment booking 

PKB is integrating the major appointment booking systems: the "Book appointment" button will appear on the appointments page. By default, this will allow the patient to manually request an appointment from a team by listing three slots that the patient is available in for the team to consider. The team can manually book the appointment using their local booking system. The team can either manually add the appointment to the patient's record through the PKB web user interface, or automatically add it through the HL7 API with an integration.

If any of the teams is in a GP practice with GPSoC APIs switched on, PKB will show the available appointment slots from the GP's system and allow the patient to book the appointment. PKB will add the appointment to the patient's record and the GP's system, again using the GPSoC APIs.

Here are the proof-of-concept videos for integration with DrDoctor and SwiftQueue:

Features deferred for now

2-factor authentication

We have a prototype 2-factor authentication in place which has completed testing with  with PKB employees. However our customers have informed us that their priority is to get their professionals viewing the PKB record via single sign on from their organisation EHRs. 

This remains an important feature for professionals not using single sign on and for patients and we will pick it up again in the future.   

Cross-Enterprise Document Sharing (XDS)