GPs ‘blindsided’ by CVD risk calculator change

Reports that Best Practice software is no longer self-populating from the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk calculator has left GPs ‘blindsided’ with ‘no warning’.
 
The previous CVD risk calculator appears to have been replaced by an external online form that does not transfer any patient data, leaving time-poor GPs to transcribe the information themselves.
 
RACGP President Dr Nicole Higgins said she has seen this first-hand, and her practice has already felt the impacts of the unexplained change.
 
‘Now it takes you to an external website and you have to manually put in the patient data and information, it calculates the risk, and then you’ve got to copy and paste it back into the patient’s notes, so it’s double handling,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘Because there is little competition amongst our medical software providers, GPs are left with few choices … it’s totally blindsided us and there’s been no warning.
 
‘We want to reduce the red tape for GPs, reduce admin time and prevent burnout but this is just incongruous.’
 
Best Practice Commercial and Partnerships Group Manager Jessica White told newsGP that in the most recent update of our Bp Premier release, Orchid Sp2, access to the original CVD risk calculator was removed, meaning clinicians now only have access to the updated Online CVD check.
 
‘Although clinicians do need to enter the data required to complete the calculation, the outcome can be recorded into the relevant filed in Bp Premier and this data then used to pre-populate other external forms,’ she said.
 
‘At the time of introducing the new online CVD risk calculator into our product, we were not provided with any technical integration documents.
 
‘Despite being told that clinicians can just use the product through their external web browser, we elected to launch the online CVD within our EMR, removing the need for clinicians to access this externally.’
 
The software change comes as GPs are busier than ever before and already facing significant administration burdens, with a recent newsGP poll finding 44% of respondents believe they are busier than 12 months earlier.
 
The RACGP’s latest Health of the Nation report revealed that 60% of GPs are dissatisfied with the amount of administration involved in their work.
 
Additionally, for GPs who work between 20 and 59 hours each week, 5% of their time is taken up by administration tasks.
 
Now, Dr Higgins is worried the software change will disincentivise GPs, who are already busy, to use the important tool.
 
‘There will be reduced uptake by GPs because of the red tape and time to use it has increased,’ she said.
 
‘It impacts on patient education, on cardiovascular risk and potentially their health, because of either over-treatment or under-treatment, because we’re not measuring actual risk.
 
‘GPs are busier than ever before, and this is just throwing fuel on the fire with our administrative burden.’
 
The new Australian guideline and calculator for assessing and managing CVD risk was launched last year, after 10 years in the making.
 
Chair of the RACGP Expert Committee – Quality Care, Professor Mark Morgan, told newsGP at the time the new algorithm represented ‘a significant change’ that would impact the way GPs assess and manage cardiovascular risk.
 
‘If used, it will mean that cholesterol and blood pressure lowering medications will be better targeted to the people that stand most to gain,’ he said.
 
CVD remains high on Australia’s burden of disease list and is estimated to be responsible for one in four deaths, and was the underlying cause of 42,700 deaths in 2022.
 
A Heart Foundation spokesperson said it had previously offered to provide the technical specification to Best Practice to help integrate the new calculator directly into its software, but told newsGP the offer was declined.
 
‘We are continuing to work with the industry to provide further assistance to integrate the new calculator into general practice software, including through developing new application that will allow for the integration of the CVD risk calculator into all practice software by mid-2025,’ they said.
 
Ms White said the company’s current discussions with the Heart Foundation have indicated it is working towards moving the online CVD risk calculator to a Smart on FHIR form.
 
She said this will enable read and write functionality and provide a better overall user experience for all.
 
‘We look forward to receiving the required technical documentation from the Heart Foundation and implementing this Smart on FHIR form when ready,’ Ms White said.
 
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