Programme

The Do Once and Share Programme (DOAS)

A national programme designed to provide clinical input into the design, development and implementation of the Connecting for Health Programme (CfH) for IT in the NHS. It is composed of about 50 clinical topics that include glaucoma, cataract and diabetic eye disease.

The purpose of the DOAS programme

To ensure that the needs of clinical specialties are taken into account, whilst providing a care record that focuses on the needs of the patient who may have more than one disease and involvement with more than one specialty. The overall aims are to:

  • Develop a common approach to common conditions/topics, recognising differences in care processes;
  • Reduce unknowing duplication;
  • Create national consistency;
  • Reduce the waste of professional and patient time; and
  • Ensure a common input to the Technical Office at CfH.

The Action Team have worked with a multi-disciplinary National Steering Committee to ensure that the clinical care pathway and its dataset are fit-for-purpose, feasible and practicable. The members included ophthalmologists, optometrists, nurse practitioners, GPs, voluntary organisations and patients.

The proposed benifits are:

  • To provide national consistency in glaucoma care that is based on best current guidance, and which is robust and transferable such that localisation within health communities may be feasible.
  • To make the production of data the by-product of clinical care rather than an activity in its own right.
  • Promotion of clinical standards by providing a common core dataset of clinically meaningful information.