Supporting consistent, high-quality clinical reasoning in Kent and Medway

Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex (Health Innovation KSS), Unity Insights, Thanet Health CIC and DemDx have partnered, through a successful SBRI Healthcare award, to evaluate how the DemDx intelligent clinical assessment platform can improve the speed, quality and safety of clinical assessments.

Health systems across the world are under sustained pressure from workforce shortages, rising demand and increasing complexity in patient care. The World Health Organization has projected a worsening global deficit of physicians, particularly in low and middle-income countries (WHO). As a result, many countries – including the UK – are expanding the roles of nurse practitioners, clinical officers and pharmacists to help meet patient needs. As multidisciplinary clinical roles expand, consistency in initial patient assessment, documentation and escalation becomes increasingly important for patient safety, continuity of care and system assurance.

A technology-enabled approach to clinical reasoning

DemDx is a clinical assessment platform designed to support professional clinical judgement. During assessment, it guides clinicians through a structured reasoning process, prompting relevant differential conditions and next steps aligned with NICE guidance. It generates concise clinical documentation in parallel with the consultation. The initial clinical assessment, before a condition is established, is a recognised high-risk point in the care pathway. The quality of these assessments can vary according to clinician experience, confidence and prior exposure. DemDx is intended to support consistency at this stage across multidisciplinary teams.

As clinicians take a patient history, DemDx guides them through a structured clinical reasoning process, prompting relevant differential conditions and appropriate next steps aligned with NICE guidance. At the same time, the platform generates concise, comprehensive clinical documentation.

Impact to date:

Primary Care

Bromley-by-Bow Health Centre

A study conducted at Bromley-by-Bow Health Centre evaluated DemDx’s ability to support Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), resident doctors and wider primary care teams.

Key findings include:

• AHP clinical documentation quality improved from 75% to 89%, measured using an adapted RCGP framework, without a statistically significant increase in consultation time (+42 seconds during the initial learning phase).
• In a resident doctor sample, appointment duration reduced by up to 40%.
• 80% of supervisors reported at least a 31% increase in confidence in AHP clinical assessments following implementation.
• 40% of supervisors reported a 31% reduction in time spent on clinical supervision; others reported minimal or no change.

Homerton NHS Urgent Care Centre 

In 2024-25, DemDx was evaluated in an urgent care setting with paramedics and Advanced Nurse Practitioners, across 109 consultations, to assess its impact on clinical practice.

Key findings include:

• Consultation duration decreased by 19%, an average saving of 6.6 minutes per patient.
• Clinical note quality improved by 7%, assessed using the RCGP audit framework.
• A reduction in escalation to senior clinicians was observed.
• Urgent Treatment Centres reported potential productivity gains equivalent to an additional day of clinician capacity per week.

Pharmacy

DemDx has also been implemented in pharmacy settings to support Pharmacy First consultations (e.g., sore throat, urinary tract infections) and minor illness services, covering over 500 clinical presentations.

Pharmacists have reported that DemDx can reduce consultation time, provide clear escalation advice aligned with NICE guidance, generate comprehensive and consistent clinical documentation, strengthen medico-legal assurance, and enhance communication with GPs.

“DemDx has changed how we approach patient consultations at Puri Chemist. It helps structure my thinking and ensures documentation is consistent and thorough. Most importantly, DemDx gives me confidence in how to manage my patients appropriately within our pharmacy, with clear support for referral or escalation when needed.”

Rahul, Independent Prescriber

Evaluating DemDx’s impact on AHP clinical assessments in Thanet 

Health Innovation KSS supported DemDx with its successful application to the SBRI Healthcare Competition 26 – Urgent & Emergency Care.

As part of the award, DemDx will collaborate with Thanet Health CIC and its clinical teams across GP practices, Home Visiting Services and the Urgent Treatment Centre. Together with Unity Insights, Health Innovation KSS will evaluate how DemDx can improve the speed and quality of clinical assessments when used by AHPs in acute settings.

“At Thanet Health CIC, we are always striving for ways to enhance patient care, and we are excited to be working alongside DemDx, Health Innovation KSS, and Unity Insights. This project has the potential to make a real difference in improving the quality and safety in urgent and emergency care and facilitate further our clinicians’ knowledge, education and efficacy. We are delighted to be part of it.”
Dr Markus Maiden Tilsen, Chief Executive Officer, Thanet Health CIC

“We are delighted to be involved in this exciting project working with our local system partners and DemDx. This tool has been born from a proper response to the needs of health and care, and we are positive that the outcome of this project will be a solid business case for wider spread and adoption across urgent and emergency care.”
Nuala Foley, Director Innovation and Enterprise, Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex

“Working with Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex has been hugely valuable in supporting the evaluation of DemDx in real clinical settings. Their support and system insight have helped ensure the focus remains on quality, safety and genuine clinical need as the platform is used in practice.”

Dr Clarisse Gontarek, Clinical Director & Business Development Manager, DemDx

 

To find out more, visit the DemDx website.

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