Welcome to Agilio | Clarity Doctors!

At Clarity, we are dedicated to continually improving our products and ensuring we are up-to-date and compliant with all newly released recommendations and guidance from the GMC and RCGP. This page will contain our new features and fixes as they are released, along with tips and guidance for you to read.

September 2020

03/09/2020 - LATEST UPDATE

• The revised Medical Appraisal 2020 template has now been made available. This contains the new format which focuses on well being of doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• We have added the ability for users that have a valid Clarity TeamNet account to access and manage Stat & Mand courses directly through eLearning.
• We have also added a new eLearning section in the navigation bar which allows you to link directly to a list of either Clinical Courses or Stat & Mand courses.

• To make it easier for you to manage your training, we have also added the number of Stat & Mand courses that you have been assigned to, next to the link.

12/05/2020

• We have added a link from elearning to our new Video Library giving you access to free video updates of the latest research across NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries.

• Appraisal extensions
  We are aware that Revalidations between now and September have been postponed on GMC advice and that some appraisees have appraisals due between now and September, which have been, or will be deferred.
  
  Following guidance from the RCGP, NHS England and the GMC regarding a process for these appraisals we have implemented some changes to our Appraisals system to take this into account - extending affected appraisals by 1 year.
  
  

• We have added another method for you to collect patient feedback. Our new ‘You Print’ service allows you to print your own patient questionnaires so that you can start collecting responses immediately. You can still purchase our printed questionnaire packs, but the ‘You Print’ option will give you greater flexibility and a much quicker turnaround time.

For Appraisal Admins

Added

19/09/2019

10/09/2019

02/09/2019

• General improvements and minor bug fixes.

For Appraisees

Changed

• We have made some improvements to the navigation of the site on mobile devices to make it easier to use.

Changed

• We have fixed a minor styling issue when printing a completed system generated Multi-Source Feedback cycle.

• On advice from the Information Commissioner’s Office, we have removed all demographic questions (gender, ethnicity and age) from our Multi-Source Feedback questionnaire, for both colleagues and patients.

For Appraisees

Changed

• The Deferrals section has been removed from your dashboard, but you can still access this section within your Profile.

For Administrators

Changed

15/08/2019

• We have added ‘Learning events’, ‘Feedback’, ‘Complaints and Compliments’ to the CPD types in AMP. The CPD types now match those in your Appraisal making it easier to keep all your data up to date.

For All Users

Added

24/07/2019

• We have fixed an issue with saving when certain emojis were added to text boxes.

For Appraisers

Changed

10/07/2019

• We have added some text to indicate that your appraisal has been allocated to your current revalidation cycle. If it hasn’t been allocated yet, then you can click on the date and you will be taken to the Revalidation Cycle Progress page where you can allocate it.
• We now display the date of your last Patient and Colleague feedback cycles and we have added links so you can easily access the relevant pages.

07/06/2019

• We have added an additional ‘import’ button to the top of the ‘Import from Portfolio’ page for ease of use, when you are importing multiple items.
• When you have completed a PSQ/MSF cycle, you will be prompted to add the cycle directly to your appraisal.
• Your system generated feedback is now visible when you click on the ‘Import from Portfolio’ link.

• You will now receive an email from an administrator when your Responsible Officer either accepts or rejects a request for a deferral of your appraisal.

Changed

• We have made it easier to click on the relevant responses for both Colleague and Patient Self-assessments.

For Appraisers

Added

• You can now change appraisal dates up to the point when an appraisee has signed off their appraisal (only if enabled for the organisation).

For Administrators

Added

• You will now receive an email when an appraisee requests a deferral of their appraisal.

08/05/2019

• When submitting responses for a Multisource Feedback questionnaire, you can now edit your responses up until the point that the MSF cycle is completed.

For Appraisers

Added

• A link to your Organisation Appraisal Policy (if available).
• The ability to link evidence directly to roles.

• An instructions page to help you find your way around your appraisal.

Changed

• The look of our site to simplify and improve ease of data entry.
• Aligned our wording to the latest MAG form, RCGP guidance and GMC advice:
• - Roles has been renamed to Scope of Work
• - CPD Events has been renamed to Continuing Professional Development
• - Additional Areas of Discussion has been renamed to Achievements, Challenges and Aspirations
• - Pre-Appraisal has been renamed to Review GMC Domains

• Streamlined CPD entry process:
• - Removed the need to collate 50 hours of CPD per year
• - Removed CPD Planning hours

For Appraisers

Changed

• Comments for reviewers for personal use and also to communicate with appraisees.

• Appraisal lists to show most-recent items first.

For Appraisal Admins

Added

• The functionality to add an Organisation Appraisal Policy.

For All Users

Added

The functionality to move forward and back between items, to improve navigation through the site.

February 2019

Learning Events

There is a new section in the Appraisal Dashboard and Portfolio for Learning Events. A learning event, (positive or negative), is an episode which has triggered a learning process for you or your team.

The GMC consider incidents which do not meet the threshold of 'any unintended or unexpected event, which could or did lead to harm of one or more patients', to be a 'learning event'.

Appraisal Year

As a result of feedback and queries received from customers regarding the singular appraisal year on an appraisal we have changed how you see appraisal years.

The appraisal year runs from April to March, so the 2019 appraisal year for example began on 01/04/2018 and ends on 31/03/2019. If your appraisal took place in July 2018 it would therefore appear as the 2019 appraisal year.

This 2019 appraisal year will now appear as 2018-19. This change affects all previous and future appraisals.

November 2018

Roles Declaration

The Roles section now includes a mandatory tick box declaration. You must declare that the roles you have recorded cover all the work you undertake.

Deferrals

There is a new section on the left hand side of the home page and in the professional profile to record Deferrals. 

If you have any special circumstances that will affect your ability to complete your appraisal or revalidation cycle, you can record them in the Deferrals section.

Deferrals do not appear in the appraisal. Types of Deferral include:

• Parental Leave
• Sabbatical / Break in practice
• Sickness
• Awaiting information from another designated body
• Other (which allows free text entry).

Once a Deferral has been added it can be reviewed and assigned a status by an Administrator or Responsible Officer. They can also be added by Administrators and Responsible Officers.

Widgets have been added to the Appraisal Administrator dashboard. Select to access the lists of requests.

Appraisal notes

There is a new feature allowing Appraisers, Administrators, Assessors and Responsible Officers to add Appraisal Notes. When viewing an appraisal as one of these roles, the option to add note appears on the Appraisal Dashboard.

When adding a note, you can select which roles you want to be able to view it. The owner of the item or someone with the same role can edit or delete the note. 

July 2018

Administrator Export to Excel

The new Administrator export to excel feature has been added to the following tables:

• Without Appraisals
• Appraisal calendar
• Revalidation calendar

There is a green button above these tables to ‘Export results to Excel’ and this will export the data into an excel spreadsheet.

June 2018

Administrator Export to Excel

We have deployed a new feature to the Appraisal Toolkit which allows the Administrator role to export data from reports and grids into an excel spreadsheet.

The Administrator tables below include this new feature:

• Appraisees (within Organisation section)
• Appraisals section

There is a green button above the tables to ‘Export results to Excel’

The Administrator can filter the results using the left ‘Results Filter’ menu and the ‘Apply and export to Excel’ button will export the filtered results into an excel spreadsheet.

The following Administrator Reports also include this new feature:

• Appraisals by Appraiser
• Leaver and Arrivals
• Development Needs
• Appraisals Completed
• Educational Appraisals

There is a 'Download Spreadsheet' option at the top left of the required report, below Actions.

May 2018

GDPR Login message

A prompt will appear on login to agree to new data protection regulations.

'Date of Birth' removed

The option to enter your date of birth has been removed from the toolkit to be compliant with new data protection regulations.

'Are you registered with a GP?' removed

The 'Are you registered with a GP?' question in Personal Information has been removed from the toolkit to be compliant with new data protection regulations. 

February 2018

Rich Text Spell Check

Your browser spell check has been active across the toolkit other than rich text fields, e.g. reflection and pre-appraisal. This is now in place throughout the toolkit.

January 2018

 New Multi Source Feedback forms

New versions of the electronic patient and colleague MSF questionnaires are now in place. The questionnaires are still those as defined by the GMC but in an effort to improve response rates we have redesigned the interface. The form is now responsive to screen size so is as usable on a smartphone as on a monitor.

New Patient questionnaire format

New Colleague questionnaire format

September 2017

Appraisee Request Change

In August 2017 we deployed updates to ensure Appraisees could more effectively control Appraiser allocation and appraisal dates where no Appraisal Administrators maintained them. 

Where Appraisal Administrators control Appraiser allocation and dates we are providing a better framework for the Appraisee to pass a request to their Administrators within the toolkit.

Each of the requests below will generate an email to the Appraisal Administrator team, will show in new widgets on the Appraisal Administrator dashboard and will be automatically cleared either by an action taken by the Administrators or deleted by the Appraisee.

• Request an Appraiser allocation
• Request a change of Appraiser

Request an Appraiser allocation

Where no appraiser has been allocated the Appraisee can select the "Change Appraiser" button.

The Appraisee can send the request with who they believe Appraiser should be and a note although neither are required.

To find their Appraiser simply use the "Search for Appraiser" button and select the correct person.

Submit will notify the Appraisal Administrators that a request has been made although the request can be deleted by the Appraisee.

Widgets have been added to the Appraisal Administrator dashboard. Select to access the lists of requests.

The list presents the type of change and by default is sorted by the request date. Filters are available for appraisal year and type of request.

Select "View" to take an action.

The requested Appraiser is listed and can be quickly accepted although all other Appraisers are listed where the rules regarding consecutive Appraisers and maximum number of appraisals would not be exceeded.

Request a change of Appraiser

Administrator resend MSF requests

Should an Administrator need to assist a doctor with their Colleague MSF cycle it is now possible to access an in progress Colleague MSF Cycle and resend the invitations on behalf of your appraisee. The functionality was already in place for the Patient Cycles.

Appraiser early access

In order to make the option more obvious the Appraiser dashboard now lists early access appraisals separately.

August 2017

• Change appraiser
• Evidence options
  • Change evidence type in portfolio and appraisal
  • Copy option available in appraisal
• View in Appraisal (Year)/Portfolio buttons
• Push evidence from Portfolio

Change Appraiser

If the organisation settings allow an appraisee to select their own appraiser we have allowed control to remain with the appraisee and they can now change their appraiser if required.

Enter the name or GMC number of the appraiser and select the correct appraiser from the list.

Evidence Options

Each evidence item now has two new buttons available.

Options

Copy - This includes the option to copy the Details section of the evidence to a new event and is now available when viewing the data in both the Portfolio and Appraisal.

Change Evidence Type - You are now able to change the evidence type of events, eg a Significant Event to a Case review or a Case review to CPD.

Where the text fields of the two evidence types do not match we present the  information ready for you to copy and paste into the section you feel is most relevant. Once you are happy the details are recorded correctly you can dismiss these notes.

First select Options and Change Evidence Type.

Select the evidence type you would like to change to from the drop down.

Where the converted fields of the original type do not match those of the type the evidence has been changed to the text remains available for you to copy/paste to the relevant section.

Once completed the Converted Fields can be dismissed.

View in Appraisal (Year)/Portfolio buttons

Add to appraisal - push evidence to your Appraisal from your Portfolio (see below).

View in Appraisal/Portfolio buttons - once an event has been added to an appraisal these buttons speed navigation between the Appraisal and Portfolio sections.

Push to appraisal from Portfolio

The option of pushing evidence from the Portfolio is now available to complement the mass import actioned from the Appraisal.

July 2017

AMP - Screen Rotation

Screen rotation is now in place in AMP - the companion app for the Clarity Appraisal Toolkits.

AMP - Attach Photos to your Evidence

As you are recording your evidence you can now attach existing photos from your device or take photos via AMP. 

Select the paperclip to open the “Attach your images“ page.

Select the green circle to show the option to take a new photo or select an existing photo.

Once the photo is attached either select the Back button to return to the mobile portfolio or the green button to attach additional photos.

A maximum of 9 can be attached to any evidence item.

The Evidence screen will present the number of photos attached to the item.

DONT FORGET: the AMP sync saves to the ""Mobile Portfolio" and will ensure all of you evidence is available on all of your devices.

To include evidence in your appraisal you will need to import from your mobile portfolio via the desktop Clarity Appraisal Toolkit.

June 2017

Internet Explorer Support

From June 2017 Clarity will no longer be developing or testing in support of Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers 8, 9 and 10. The newest version, Internet Explorer 11, will continue to be supported.

For help updating your browser, visit whatbrowser.org.

While the Clarity Appraisal Toolkits will continue to function with these older versions of Internet Explorer, over time you may find some functionality does not work or the on-screen presentation might be affected.

Why are we doing this?

• Security - Microsoft announced on the 12th of January 2016 that support has been removed for all but the latest-available versions of Internet Explorer, for each version of Windows. This has left Internet Explorer 10, and earlier versions, unsupported and no fixes or patches will be released for any future bugs or security vulnerabilities. From the 13th of January 2016, Microsoft tech support will not help you with issues on Internet Explorer 8, 9 or 10.
• Usage - Usage of old versions of Internet Explorer to access ATK has dropped significantly. This is allowing us to withdraw support for Internet Explorer 8, 9 & 10, confident that very few of you will be affected.
• Expense - Testing on old browsers is expensive, time consuming and prevents us from introducing new technologies that would improve the toolkit.
• Alternatives - We will continue to test for Internet Explorer 11 and all of the common browsers; Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge. We also test against all common mobile browsers.

You can download the latest version of Internet Explorer here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17621/internet-explorer-downloads. However, if you access the Toolkit on a terminal at work, please check with your IT team.

May 2017

Over the last few months we have been working to prepare and release AMP - the companion app for the Clarity Appraisal Toolkits.

Today we have released a small addition to the MSF functionality.

MSF - Supporting Medical Colleague

From the GMC guidance

“Nominating a supporting medical colleague. At the beginning of the survey process, doctors might like to nominate a ‘supporting medical colleague’ with whom they can informally discuss their report shortly after its receipt.”

The appraisee can now select to add a "supporting medical colleague" via the MSF Cycle screen. This is optional and only requires an email address to be added, the supporting medical colleague does not need to be registered within the toolkit.

Once in place the option switches to “Remove Supporting Medical Colleague”.

As the appraisee closes the cycle they are presented with the screen below to update the SMC email and add a message, eg preferred method of contact.

An example of the email sent to the nominated Supporting Medical Colleague.

April 2017

 AMP - the Clarity CPD mobile app is now live! Click here for more details.

December 2016

We have deployed changes to the administrator dashboards, the main change is to introduce a revalidation dashboard with a corresponding revalidation calendar.

• Search option
• Swap organisation from the dashboard
• New Revalidation Dashboard with Calendar
• New Revalidation grids
  o   Revalidation Cycles
  o   Overdue Cycles
  o   Without Revalidation Cycle

Search Function

The search function has been moved to the top of the screen. The search still works as before and you can search by name of GMC number.

New Appraisal Dashboard

The appraisal dashboard has been refreshed to allow access to the new revalidation dashboard.

If you belong to more than one organisation you can now change organisations via the organisation dropdown in the dashboard. You will be presented with all organisations to which you belong. Selecting a new organisation will swap your organisation without needing to access the “Change Active Role/Organisation” option.

New Revalidation Dashboard

Revalidation Calendar

New Revalidation Grids including filters

 We have introduced three specialised grids to allow you access to the detail of your organisations revalidation cycles.

Revalidation Cycles

This is the full list of active cycles that was already in place with the addition of the filters including filtering by quarter.

Two additional lists have been created to identify the revalidation cycles still open beyond the due date and the appraisees without a revalidation cycle.

Overdue Cycles

Without Revalidation Cycle

October 2016

1. Login screen - The login screen has been updated to make better use of space to improve the experience for users with lower resolution monitors and anyone accessing the toolkits on mobile devices.
   
   
2. Portfolio changes - We have standardised the way we handle the data for portfolio items to allow for opportunities in the future and ease linkage with partners such as e-learning platforms.
   

Complaints and Compliments already recorded on 02/10/2016 will need to be re imported to your appraisal from the portfolio. Open your appraisal and select Import From Portfolio from the Actions section of the left navigation.

Colleague and Patient Feedback

Multiple documents can now be uploaded against a Colleague and Patient Feedback item. We have removed the restriction requiring a document upload when recording Feedback to allow this however documents will still need to be uploaded against feedback in order to submit the appraisal.

It is now possible to link Feedback to Agreed PDP and Educational Appraisals should you need to.

Complaints and Compliments

The Complaints and Compliments section has been split into two separate entries. This will allow our partners to pass these events directly into the Clarity ATK.

Complaints and Compliments already recorded will need to be re imported to the appraisal from the portfolio. Open your appraisal and select Import From Portfolio from the Actionssection of the left navigation.

Compliments and Complaints will not automatically be included in an appraisal. After analysing usage we saw a lot of our users did not include an end date so complaints were being included in appraisals long after they were resolved. Compliments and Complaints will now work like the other portfolio items and can be included in only one appraisal. If a complaint remains outstanding you can easily create a copy of the item in the portfolio to include in your next appraisal.

It is also possible to link both Compliments and Complaints to an Agreed PDP and Educational Appraisal should you need to.

Minor Surgery and Procedure Logs

Minor surgery logs and Procedure logs can now be recorded via the Portfolio rather than the Professional Profile section and will show in the 3. Appraisal Information section of the appraisal rather than 2. Roles & Responsibilities.

It is now possible to link Minor surgery logs and Procedure logs to an Agreed PDP and Educational Appraisal should you need to.

The New Portfolio Menu

The New Appraisal Menu

Educational Appraisal Updates

Following feedback from our partner Trusts some updates are now in place related to the educational appraisals.

Undergraduate role has been renamed to Undergraduate Lead Role.

Where an Educational Role is in place evidence must now be linked before the appraisal can be submitted. If an educational role exists without any evidence linked to it then the appraisee receives the warning below. Clicking on the warning redirects the appraisee to the Educational Roles section to link evidence as required.

The appraiser summary of discussion now lists educational roles alongside the roles standard roles.

The Administrator educational appraisals report now includes whether the role is included in the job plan.

September 2016

Organisation Supporting Information

Following a number of requests a new feature has been introduced to allow Appraisal Administrators to upload documents and add text directly into an appraisal via a new section, Organisation Supporting Information.

If you navigate to an appraisal using your Appraisal Administrator role you will see we have moved the actions to the left navigation and added a new option – Organisation Supporting information.

The section allows you to both add text and upload documents. The section is not presented on an appraisal unless information has been added by Appraisal Administrators.

The section can only be can only be added to, changed or removed by an Appraisal Administrator. It is read only to the other roles although they will be able to read and download the information if they have access to the appraisal.

Within the section we provide you with the date when the Details section was last saved and when Documents were last uploaded. 

Document upload is quick and simple, just add a File Description and select a Document Type. There is no limit to the number of files that can be added.

Should you need to upload multiple iterations of a file, Appraisal Administrator level users can see the user who uploaded each of the documents and the date the document was added.

Other users will only see the Description and Document Type.

Organisation Supporting Information section has been included in section 3. Appraisal Information.

July 2016

Early access organisation setting

A new setting is available that would automatically enable the early access option on all appraisals at your organisation. The setting would allow access by appraisers to an appraisal at the ‘Entering Evidence’ status and appraisal administrators and Responsible Officers at all stages prior to ‘Complete’.

This would be a significant change and should be enabled only after engaging with your staff. Should you like to have this setting applied please contact our helpdesk.

Appraisal overview at all roles

A summary of the appraisal is now available to all roles. This lists the number of events and credits recorded but will not allow access to the details of the appraisal unless early access has been granted or early access is enforced at the organisation.

Organisation Feedback by role

Organisation feedback, collected from the appraiser after sign off and from the appraisee after an appraisal is completed, can now be enabled for either appraisees or appraisers rather than both or neither. The options are available to administrator users via Organisation>Settings>Optional Appraisal Features.

MSF link from administrator dashboard

Selecting the MSF widget from the administrator/RO dashboard now takes you to a filtered version of the main administrator MSF list.

MSF notifications when manually entered

Those of you who utilise our paper based MSF service to collect patient feedback will now receive a confirmation email when our data entry clerks have entered your responses should the number meet or exceed the required number at your organisation.

Ophthalmology sub specialities

The Ophthalmology sub specialities have been expanded to include those recognised by the RCoO.

Undergraduate education role – both option

The undergraduate role in an educational appraisal can now be selected as both an SSC Supervisor and Regular teacher in the Clinical Teacher in LEP section.

Appraisals calendar for administrators

A calendar is now available for administrator level users to view appraisal/meeting and due dates. The calendar can be accessed via the ‘Appraisals Calendar’ option on the administrator dashboard or via the new Calendar option at the top of the screen.

May 2016

Profession Profile - Roles

Following feedback received from our users the tick box to identify if a performance review is undertaken has been removed.

Professional Profile – Surgical Log

Following feedback received from our users “Surgical Log” has been renamed to “Procedure Log”.

Joint Appraiser

We now have the capacity for an additional appraiser to be allocated to an appraisal by an appraisee. This “Joint Appraiser” has read only access to the appraisal information and receives email notifications in the same way that the main appraiser does. If your organisation is interested in enabling this functionality please contact the support team. 

April 2016

A number of updates will be released on 31st March to ensure the Appraisal Toolkit remains compliant with both the new MAG form and new RCGP guidance that comes into effect 1st April 2016.

MAG 2016

Roles Reflection

The section reflection boxes against Roles have been updated from:

Box 1 - Please reflect on any changes you have made to your scope of work since your last appraisal.

Box 2 - Please describe any future changes to your scope of work that you envisage taking place in the next year.

to

Box 1 - Please describe here anything significant regarding the relationship between your various roles.

             This is an opportunity for you to review the relationship between your roles and the steps you have taken to address these. Describe here any issues relating to conflicts of interests that you

             are managing and to flag with your appraiser. Also include here any complementary relationships.

Box 2 - Please describe any changes to your scope of work that you have made since your last appraisal and any that you envisage taking place in the next year. 

The change will only apply to 2017 appraisals. Where data exists in 2017 appraisals that have already been created the Box1 data will be merged and added to Box2.

 Statements and Declarations

The Probity Declaration has been expanded to include professional indemnity.

I declare that I accept the professional obligations placed upon me in Good Medical Practice in relation to probity, including the statutory obligation on me to ensure that I have adequate professional indemnity for all my professional roles and the professional obligation on me to manage my interests appropriately.

Additional Information

A new section has been added to the Appraisal Information section for all appraisals. It has been introduced to allow an appraisee to record that they have been requested by their organisation or Responsible Officer to bring additional information to their appraisal and upload any associated documentation. Where this information would have CPD points associated with it the Doctors are requested to identify where this has been recorded elsewhere in the toolkit.

The section is required. You must select either ‘No’ or ‘Yes’ and save text in the field. If an attempt to submit the appraisal is made without an option being selected the warning below will be presented. Click on the warning to be taken directly to the relevant section to complete.

RCGP Guidance Updates

The full Royal College of General Practitioners: RCGP Guide to supporting information for appraisal and revalidation (2016) can be found here.

http://www.rcgp.org.uk/revalidation/~/media/Files/Revalidation-and-CPD/2016/RCGP-Guide-to-Supporting-Information-2016.ashx

Patient Feedback 

The RCGP have updated their guidance to recommend GPs reflect on their patient interactions annually. This should be recorded in the Colleague and Patient Feedback section. 

If feedback has been uploaded as 'Patient' or 'Both' feedback then the requirement will be counted as fulfilled. 

The section is required. Where no 'Patient' or 'Both' feedback has been added, and no reflection has been recorded, the warning below will be presented. Click on the warning to be taken directly to the relevant section to complete.

PDP Labels.

PDP labels have been expanded both in line with RCGP feedback and sub-headings inserted to the MAG 2016 section 18. 

The headings have been updated from:

What is your learning need?

How are you going to achieve this?

to

What is your learning or development need and why is this needed?

How are you going to achieve this learning objective and how will you demonstrate success?

March 2016

RCGP Guidance – Removal of Impact

Following the RCGP Council meeting 26^th February 2016 the ‘one size fits all’ doubling of CPD credits for demonstrating the impact of a doctors' learning on their practice is being phased out from 1^st April 2016. It is to be replaced by the recommendation that GPs record the CPD credits for time spent on additional learning activities involved in demonstrating impact.

Within the Clarity & RCGP Appraisal Toolkit for GPs control over the availability of the claim impact function is on an appraisal by appraisal basis rather than by evidence date.

Changes have been made as follows:

•  New appraisals created from 2^nd March 2016 will not show options to claim impact.
•  Appraisals due to end in the appraisal year 2017 (April 2016 – March 2017) will have impact disabled if evidence has been added but no impact has yet been claimed.
•  Appraisals already created and with impact claimed will retain the impact functionality however we will provide warning messages within the toolkit that impact should not be claimed for evidence/activities dated 01/04/2016 and later.

Should you identify any situation where impact would need to be re-enabled on any appraisal please contact our support team on 0845 113 7111, doctors-appraisals-enquiries@clarity.co.uk or via a helpdesk ticket.

February 2016

Medical Indemnity

 Following regulation changes recording a medical indemnity provider is now required in order to submit an appraisal.

 If the medical indemnity provider has not been selected the warning below will be presented on submission of the appraisal.

 Select the link to be redirected to the Personal Information screen to add the missing data.

 We expect additional changes will be made once the MAG2016 update is in effect.

Administrator Reissue Rejected invite

Should an invite to a new user be rejected in error Administrator users can now manage this without the need to raise a helpdesk ticket to us.

• Select Organisations > Invite Users to see the screen below.

•  Select “Rejected” to see the list of rejected invites. Select the action “Remove”. 

• Confirm by selecting “Remove”. The rejection has now been cleared and the invite can be re-sent.

Grid Actions

Following feedback from our user groups we have changed how the “Actions” option works within the grids.

Rather than presenting the Actions options on a dropdown within the grid, select open and the actions are presented within the form.

October 2015

New wide screen layout

 We have introduced a new wide screen layout. This improves our adherence to our accessibility statement and WCAG 2.0 and provides additional flexibility for future development.

Colleague and patient feedback

Reflection can now be logged against individual entries in Colleague and Patient feedback.

Completed appraisals

A short cut has been introduced to the appraisal screen to allow fast access to prior apppraisals.

Download/Print appraisal

You can now control what is included in the appraisal download/print. The presets are still available but additional evidence can be included or excluded as you wish. The layouts have now been updated too.

 Appraisal Submit

 The traffic light key has been added to ensure the colour coding is clear.

 Educational appraisals

 The education appraisal section has been moved out of section 3.Appraisal Information to 2.Roles & Responsibilities.

 CPD Events, Quality Improvement Activities and Significant Events can now be linked to an Education Role from within the event.

Last Year’s PDP

A new organisation setting is available. Disabling the Last Year’s PDP 'First Appraisal' option will prevent your Appraisees from opting out of their Last Year’s PDP.

Administrator users can access the setting via Organisation > Settings > Optional Appraisal Features

January 2015

New Features - Appraisee

Grant Early access to appraisal

We have introduced a new feature for you to grant your appraiser, administrator or RO early access to your appraisal before submission/completion. The option to ‘Grant Early Access’ can be found on the appraisal left menu under ‘Tools’. The early access can expire on a specific date or be indefinite.

Revalidation information for historic appraisals

We have introduced a new feature to enable you to populate revalidation information for your historic appraisals which have been uploaded manually or migrated, the information you enter is then displayed on your Revalidation page in the Completed Appraisals table at the bottom. The revalidation information can be entered in the appraisal details tab whilst uploading a new historic appraisal or viewing an existing uploaded or migrated historic appraisal.

Change Revalidation Cycle Period

We have added the 'Change Period' blue link on the Revalidation page to enable you to change your own Revalidation cycle.

Last Year’s PDP Development Evidence

We have included a yellow banner on the Last Year's PDP items where Development evidence has not been provided to notify you this is required. The Last Year's PDP items table also includes a column for ‘Evidence Provided’ which shows if evidence has been provided.

Qualifications and Memberships

We have updated this section so that you can include Qualifications and Memberships with dates falling outside of the appraisal period.

Roles

We have updated this section so that if a role is entered which falls outside of the appraisal period, a red message will appear to inform you the role has been saved to the Professional Profile and shows the appraisal period the role must fall within to be included in the appraisal. This also gives the option to ‘Edit this item’ or ‘View role in Professional Profile’ from this page.

Complaints and Compliments 

We have updated this section so that if a Complaint/Compliment item is entered which falls outside of the appraisal period, a red message will appear to inform you the Complaint/Compliment item has been saved to the Portfolio and shows the appraisal period the item must fall within to be included in the appraisal. This also gives the option to ‘Edit this item’ or ‘View item in Portfolio’ from this page.

Appraisals section

We have updated this section to show your Current and Historic appraisals in separate tables on the same page. This will make it easier to see all of your appraisals

Link to Revalidation page on Home page

We have updated the Home page to include a link directly to your Revalidation page and the option to create a new Revalidation cycle if you do not already have a current cycle.

Complete MSF cycle 

We have added instructions to import your MSF results into your appraisal when you complete an MSF cycle.

Change or remove Speciality

The Speciality can now be changed or removed in the Professional Profile.

New features - Appraiser

Grant early access 

We have introduced the Grant early access feature to appraisees to enable them to grant the appraiser early access to their appraisal before submission/completion. If an appraisee has granted the appraiser early access, an email will be sent to notify and the appraisal can be accessed by the appraiser in the same way as a submitted appraisal.

Change Last Year’s PDP Target completion date

 Appraisers are now able to set a new target completion date to a Last Year’s PDP item being carried forward and can view the original and current target completion dates.

Preview of appraisal information

Appraisers will now see a Preview page when viewing an appraisees appraisal not yet submitted. This shows the appraisal status, evidence from, to and due dates, revalidation date (if entered) and the appraisal history.

Accept Proposed PDP items in Proposed PDP section

Appraisers can now accept an appraisees proposed PDP items in the Proposed PDP section, making it easier to see the option to accept.

Appraiser payment status page

The Appraiser payment status page has been updated with the option to filter by ‘Not paid’, ‘Paid’ or ‘All’.

New features - Appraisal Administrator

 Administrators can set Educational Evidence on an appraisee

Administrators can now set and remove the educational role on an appraisee’s appraisal. If set, this will carry over to the next appraisal.

Early Access appraisals filter

We have introduced the Grant early access feature to appraisees to enable them to grant the appraisal administrator, appraiser or RO early access to their appraisal before submission/completion. Administrators will see a new Early Access appraisal filter to view any appraisals with early access granted.

Preview of appraisal information and available actions

Administrators will now see a preview page when viewing an appraisal not yet complete where they can view the status, meeting date (if booked), the appraisal history and available actions, such as assign appraiser, change appraiser, remove appraiser and change due dates.

Administrator messages

This page has been updated to show Organisation messages as default when logged in as administrator. All messages now include the date received.

Create new Revalidation cycle on Revalidation page

We have updated the Revalidation page to include the 'Create Cycle' link to create a new revalidation cycle once the previous cycle has been closed. Previously, the administrator would have to go back to the list of revalidation cycles to do this.

Unable to close a Revalidation cycle containing an incomplete appraisal

If an administrator tries to close a Revalidation cycle containing an incomplete appraisal, a message is now displayed to advise the cycle cannot be closed until the incomplete appraisal is either completed or removed from the cycle.

September 2014

Appraisal Toolkit for GPs goes live!

We have collaborated closely with RCGP to bring primary care doctors a completely tailored service that meets their specific needs. Click here for more details.

June 2014

New Feature - Appraisees - Reflection added to Portfolio

At Clarity, customer feedback is important to us, and we strive to ensure your thoughts and suggestions for improvements are considered and discussed with our steering group. As a result of your feedback, we have reintroduced the reflection option to your Portfolios - now you can reflect upon an activity as you add it into your Portfolio, then import it all straight into your appraisal at a later date.

New Features - Administrators

We have released a number of new features for administrators to improve ease of use and flexibility of the system. These changes include:

• a new Top 5 Development Needs widget on your dashboard
• a new Appraiser Training section can be found in the left navigation bar of your Organisation
• you can now filter your reports by department
• two new widgets have been added to your dashboard to show any upcoming late or overdue appraisals in your organisation
• you can now filter your grids by department
• a widget displaying Post Appraisal Feedback statistics has also been added to your dashboard
  
  

New Features - Appraisals

We have added new links to the left navigation menu to help reviewing the appraisal documentation easier. The Revalidation Progress will show the appraisee's revalidation progress table within the documentation, and the Current Appraisal Documents link will show a grid containing every uploaded document within the appraisal.

May 2014

New Role - Assessors

We have introduced a new role to Appraisal Toolkit. Administrators can now add 'assessors' to their organisation. Please contact Customer Support for details of how this role can be beneficial to your organisation.

New Feature - Administrators

We have released a new report option for Administrators - you can now run reports for all Completed Appraisals in a chosen year.

April 2014

There has been lots going on behind the scenes at Clarity to ensure Appraisal Toolkit runs as smoothly as possible for you. In addition to us tidying and streamlining Appraisal Toolkit, and fixing minor bugs that users have brought to our attention, we have just released three substantial new features to ensure the appraisal experience remains as simple and beneficial as possible.

New Feature - Primary Care

We have fully restructured the organisations within Appraisal Toolkit to bring primary care in line with the change from PCT to CCG. The first time you log in you will be required to confirm your CCG. We have tried to place you as accurately as possible, but there may be some users that have been assigned to the wrong organisation. If you have already confirmed your organisation and realised it is incorrect, email our Customer Support Team and we will ensure it is corrected.

New Feature - Secondary Care

We have added a new 'Educational Appraisal' section to Form 3 of the appraisal documentation. This will allow appraisees to document any educational and teaching roles they have. This section can be enabled for specific appraisees and will not appear for those that are not marked as requiring educational evidence. For more information, please contact our Customer Support Team at doctors-appraisals-enquiries@clarity.co.uk.

Update - Responsible Officer

The Responsible Officer role have been given an aesthetic overhaul, and now features a new dashboard to replace the old homepage.

February 2014

 New Feature - Link to PDP Tab

We have introduced a new “Link to PDP” tab to allow you to link your appraisal evidence to your PDPs directly from each item. Previously, appraisal evidence could only be linked to PDPs through the Last Year’s PDP section. Now you can link your evidence straight to your PDP when you are editing it in your appraisal. Click here for more information.

New Feature - Secondary Care Administrators

We have re-introduced the "Invite" feature for secondary care administrators. Click here for more information.

New Feature - Administrator overhaul

 We have redesigned the Administrator homepage into an easier to use and more functional dashboard. The dashboard displays widgets which contain important information about your organisation, so it can be seen as soon as you log in and is not hidden in the menus.

Click here for more details

 We have also implemented a new filtering system for your organisation or your appraisals to make it easier to find specific users and their appraisals. Click here to see an example.

October 2013

New Feature - New text box toolbar with clear formatting options

We have had feedback in the past that users have encountered some difficulty when trying to reformat text that had been copied and pasted from documents and word files into their accounts. With this in mind, we have changed our rich textbox toolbar to provide you with new formatting options, including:

1. Undo and Redo options
2. Left and Center alignment 
3. Clear Formatting (which will leave all text in the same size and font)

New Report for Administrators

Feedback from our Steering Group Meeting on 17th January has led us to create a new report for Administrators to run - Development Needs. This report allows Administrators to see which Development Needs are being selected by their appraisees for their Agreed PDPs/Last Year's PDPs that are being carried forward or continued.

December 2013

Feature - Changing your active role is even easier!
We know many of our users have different roles within Appraisal Toolkit (whether you are both an appraisee and an appraiser or you are an administrator for multiple organisations) and sometimes need to jump from one to the other. From feedback we gathered we realised our old 'change role' function wasn't clear enough, so we have given it an overhaul. Now you can change your role with 3 clicks! Click here to see how.

Feature - Change your own security question

We have introduced the functionality for users to change your own security question and answer through Appraisal Toolkit without having to call our Customer Support Team. Click here to see how.

Feature - System Email

We  have also introduced a new system email during the creation of appointments. When an appraiser creates an appointment slot for an individual appraisee, the appraisee will receive a prompt from Appraisal Toolkit with instructions of how to book the appointment through their account.

November 2013

Feature - Responsible Officer and Administrator reports

In response to feedback we have re-introduced the Appraisal Feedback by Appraiser report to Administrators and Responsible Officers. Click here for more information.

Bug Fix - Appraiser Permissions Error

We have received reports from some appraisers stating that they have received error messages when trying to view some sections of appraisees' appraisals.

This error has been fixed and you should not encounter any more problems reviewing your appraisees’ evidence.

Please note: Before attempting to review the evidence please ensure the appraisal has not been reverted; if the status is set as “Entering Evidence” you cannot view any sections until it is submitted. If you still encounter difficulty please contact our Customer Support Team on 0845 113 7111 or via our helpdesk.

 Feature - Responsible Officers and Administrators

We have upgraded the Responsible Officer and Administrator reports section to provide you with new, easier to read graphs and reports detailing:

• Appraisers (by appraiser)
• Appraisal Feedback
• Leavers and Arrivals from your organisation

Click here for more information.

October 2013

Feature release – Administrators

 We have introduced two new settings into Appraisal Configuration settings section of the Administrator role. Click here for more information.

Feature release - Appraisers and Appraisees

Appraisees and appraisers can now export their booked appraisal meetings to their external calendars, including Outlook, Google, Hotmail and Yahoo calendars. See your Appraisal Meetings information for more details.

September 2013

Feature: New and Improved Appraisal Meetings Functionality

 Appraisal Toolkit's new "Appraisal Meetings" functionality has replaced the old "Appointments" section. Now:

• Appraisers can open meetings slots according to time and date
• Appraisers can make slots available to specific Appraisees or to all Clinicians they are appraising
• Locations can be added to booked meetings
• Appraisers now have Appraisal Meeting reminders on their homepage.
• Appraisers can request to change the time, date or location of a booked meeting

For more information on using Appraisal meetings as an Appraiser, click here.

• Clinicians can book meetings from their homepage
• Clinicians can remind their Appraisers to open available times for meetings
• Clinicians can request to change the time, date or location of a booked meeting

For more information on using Appraisal Meetings as an Appraisee, click here.

Feature: New guidance added to appraisals

At Clarity we understand that compiling all of your evidence and deciding which form to include it in can be confusing, so we have added new guidance to make the entire process easier for all involved. This guidance has been collated from GMC sources to make completing appraisals less complicated and describes:

• What evidence you should include
• Where that evidence should be
• Why the evidence is needed 

The guidance can be found in our new appraisal header, and some section have links to further information and GMC sources.

Feature: Cosmetic Overhaul

Appraisal Toolkit has undergone some cosmetic changes. The most noticeable include:

• A new appraisal progress bar and appraisal timeline on the Clinician homepage
• A new condensed 'appraisal header' bar, containing all of your appraisal details and guidance information, which can be accessed with a click of your mouse. All of your CPD tallies and appraisal details are still there, just click 'Show Details' to see them!

Feature: 'Ready to complete MSF' email

Now Clinicians will receive an email reminder when their MSF cycles are ready to complete. If you are waiting for patients/colleagues to send feedback electronically, you will receive an email when you have reached the minimum number of responses and can complete your cycle. Remember to complete your self assessment if you haven't already.  

August 2013

Feature: Update to MSF electronic questionnaire opt-out

Patient and Colleague feedback request emails now contain an opt-out link. The option to opt-out was always available at the top of the questionnaire, but is now available directly from the email request.

Feature: Prompt to complete ORSA Appraisal Feedback

If your organisation has enabled the Appraisal Feedback on Appraisal Toolkit you will now be prompted to complete the short questionnaire once your appraisal has been signed off. The “Successful Sign-off” page will have a feedback button for you to go directly to the questionnaire.

July 2013

 Feature - Appraisers can now add shared notes to an appraisal!

We have improved and upgraded our Appraiser Notes function to allow Appraisers to add "shared notes" to appraisal evidence. These notes can be seen by Appraisees as soon as they're added to the appraisal and are perfect for giving advice, suggestions and comments, either on whole sections or on individual items. We have kept the old Appraiser Notes function too though, so Appraisers can still add personal annotations to the evidence if needed.

Want more information? Click here.

June 2013

Feature - MSF Benchmarking!

Clarity’s MSF Benchmarking provides perspective for results gathered through Multi-Source Feedback, by allowing doctors and their Appraisers, Appraisal Administrators and Responsible Officers to compare and contrast results from MSF cycles with regularly renewed benchmark data taken from our constantly growing national, organisational and specialty database.

MSF Benchmarking generates up-to-date data monthly and performs a series of automated calculations that provide an up-to-date analysis and representation of the results. Click here for more information on the calculations used.

MSF Update

Along with the addition of benchmarking we have updated our MSF tool, and renamed "peer feedback" to "colleague feedback" due to external requests.

Click here for updated instructions on using MSF.

Feature - Significant Event Declaration

In line with the MAG form, Clinicians must now formally declare whether or not they have been involved in any significant events during the year before submitting their appraisals.

Feature - Revalidation Dates

Appraisal Administrators and Responsible Officers can now change a Clinician's revalidation date if it has been entered into Appraisal Toolkit incorrectly. Click here to see how!

Due to external feedback, the "exclusions" section in the Appraisal Administrator role has been changed to "exemptions".

Feature - Job Plans Update

The Job Plans feature has been updated!

Now you can upload your job plan to a separate section in Form 2 of your appraisal and have the option to include notes or reflective text alongside it.

May 2013

Feature - Clinicians and Appraisal Administrators

• Revalidation Progress Screens are now available for Clinicians and Appraisal Administrators!

Clinicians click here for more information.

Administrators click here for more information.

Change - Section Name

• “Complaints and Accolades” has been renamed to “Complaints and Compliments” due to feedback from our Appraisal Toolkit Steering Group.

Feature – Expanding textboxes

• Text boxes now expand to accommodate large volumes of text; no more scrolling to read all of the information contained within an item.

(Please Note this feature does not affect text boxes with text formatting options, e.g. those in the "Pre-Appraisal" section.)

Feature –“Floating Save Button”

• When you are adding or editing a new item you no longer need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to save your work, simply click the new save button which hovers at the bottom of your screen. 

April 2013

Feature - Responsible Officers

New Revalidation Progress screens! 

• Appraisal Toolkit have introduced a new "Revalidation" area to the Responsible Officer role. This allows Responsible Officers to monitor revalidation statistics of their organisation and includes an individual review screen for each clinician, allowing ROs to see what information clinicians have included in their each of their appraisals as they have been collating evidence for revalidation, any areas that may need to be investigated and how many CPD points they have accrued in total.

Click here to see more information on the new Revalidation Progress area.

Feature - Administrators

• The appraisal dates settings have been updated to allow you to choose between appraisal year or an appraisal due date when creating new appraisals.
• The organisation settings section has also been updated to improve navigation and usability.

New Feature – Appraisal PDFs

• All users can now download and save appraisal content, MSF results and PDP information as a PDF file.
• Click here to see how to download and save a PDF. 

Features – Clinicians

Statements and Declarations

• There is a new feature to allow Clinicians to give details about and reflect upon any suspensions or restrictions on their practice. This can be found in the Statements and Declarations. 

GMP Domains

• If the GMP domain feature is enabled within your organisation; complaints, accolades and user uploaded MSF results can now be mapped to GMP domains within an appraisal.

Submitting an Appraisal

• Clinicians must now confirm they have not identified any individual patients within an appraisal and have anonymised anything which is potentially identifiable within uploaded documents prior to submitting their appraisal.

Claiming Impact

• If impact is claimed against evidence, there is now a section to record the reason for the impact claimed, if applicable. Any information entered can be reviewed by appraisers and added to or amended if necessary.

Surgical Logs

• Both individual procedures and multiple procedure documents can be added as surgical log evidence. Please see the surgical log section for more information.

Features - Appraisers

Appraisal Payment

The Payment Status screen has been updated to allow invoice numbers to be added against a completed appraisal. Please click here for more information.

Revalidation Dates

• Revalidation dates are now visible on appraisal dashboards. If no date has been entered by the clinician this will show as ‘unknown’.

Features – Administrators

Appraisal Settings

• Within the organisation settings we have added the ability to enable “automatic appraisal creation” and “automatic appraiser allocation”. If this is enabled, appraisals and appraisers for the next year will be created and allocated automatically according to individual organisation settings, as soon as the current appraisal is completed. Please see the Editing your organisation's appraisal settings section for more information.  

Appraisal Feedback

• Appraisal Dashboards now show when the clinician and appraiser have completed their post-appraisal feedback.

Removing Appraisals

• Appraisals with a status of ‘open’ can be removed by administrators. Please click here for full instructions.

Revalidation Dates

• There are two new sections for revalidation date information. One containing all clinicians who have entered a revalidation due date within Appraisal Toolkit and another showing all clinicians without a revalidation date. 
• Revalidation dates are now visible on appraisal dashboards. If no date has been entered by the clinician this will show as ‘unknown’.

Search Function

• We have updated the user search function throughout Appraisal Toolkit to allow you to enter the user’s first name, surname, email address or GMC number within the main search box.

Please Note: To search by dates you will still need to click ‘show more options’.

Features – Responsible Officers

Appraisal Output Disagreements

• We have added a section which shows appraisals where the Appraiser or Clinician has disagreed with one or more of the appraisal outputs. Please click here for more information. 

Search Function

• We have updated the user search function throughout Appraisal Toolkit to allow you to enter the user’s first name, surname, email address or GMC number within the main search box.

Please Note: To search by dates you will still need to click “show more options”. 

February 2013

Feature - Clinicians

You can now upload Job Plan documents when adding your Roles to Appraisal Toolkit. Click here to see how! 

Feature - Multi-Source Feedback

Clarity’s Multi-Source Feedback tool has been updated to allow ALL clinicians to use the Paper based Patient MSF system!

You can now buy Paper MSF packs individually via PayPal and if you run out of questionnaires you can buy Replenishment Packs to top up your supply. You can also track your order status every step of the way – from order to delivery, and your packs should be with you within 14 working days.

Click here to see how to order your paper pack.

January 2013

Feature - Appraisals

Due to customer feedback we have re-introduced the option for reflecting on individual items to Appraisal Toolkit. You can now complete your reflective statements on individual items as well as on whole evidence types.

Feature - All Users

A time-out warning now appears on screen if there has been a period of inactivity in the Appraisal Toolkit. You will have the option to enter your password to remain logged in to the application and save any changes. 

December 2012

Feature - Admins

Changes have been made to the Clarity MSF tool, which allow Organisations to lower the minimum number of required Patient Feedback responses to 15.

Note for Clinicians: The required number of feedback responses (both peer and patient) is set by your Organisation and cannot be changed by Clarity. If you do not receive the required number of responses you cannot access your feedback results, however the results we have received will be saved and you can “top them up” for your appraisal next year without re-starting the feedback process. New cycles only need to be started when you have completed a cycle (i.e. 100% of required responses have been received and your self assessment completed) and included it in an appraisal.

Feature - Admins

The Batch create appraisals function has been updated, and a Batch Allocate Appraiser function has been added.  

Fixes

• A bug preventing uploaded XPS files from being downloaded from Appraisal Toolkit has been fixed – you should now be able to download and open your files without errors occurring.

• Section 4 has been re-ordered in appraisals and relevant appraisal dashboards. It is now seen:

1. Summary of discussion
2. Agreed PDP
3. Appraiser Statements

5^th December 2012

ATK Shutdown

The old ATK site has now been closed. No data has been deleted, however to access your information you need to upgrade to the new Appraisal Toolkit.

The upgrade is free of charge for existing users and all of your historic appraisals and attached documents will be transferred across to your account on the new site.

*You can now upgrade yourself to the new Toolkit. To upgrade, click here*

Please note: You will need to repopulate your Qualifications, Roles and Last Year's PDP when you use the new Toolkit for the first time.

November 2012

Feature - All Users

A new page has been added to this wiki containing all of the Appraisal Toolkit YouTube tutorials. This page is updated whenever a new tutorial is released, keeping all of the videos in one place for easier viewing. The page can now be accessed directly from the Help page in Appraisal Toolkit.

To access the page from Appraisal Toolkit:

• Click Help in the top navigation bar
• Click the "Video Tutorials" link

The page can also be accessed here.

Feature - All Users

 Users can now request to have their username changed by Clarity’s Customer Support Team. This allows users to change the email address with which they access Appraisal Toolkit (e.g. changing from a personal email address to a work email address)

Feature - Administrators

 A new section has been added to allow Administrators to view the Revalidation Due Dates of Clinicians in their organisation.

 Click here for more details.

Feature - Appraisals

A new set of declarations has been added to both the Appraiser view and Clinician view of an appraisal. These declarations must be confirmed before either party is able to Sign-Off the appraisal.

Click here for more details.

Feature - Appraisal Format

 A new GMP Overview section has been added to the appraisals of Clinicians that are members of Organisations with GMP settings enabled (i.e. that are required to map each item against the GMC’s 4 domains of Good Medical Practice). The overview shows how many of each type of evidence item are mapped against each domain of GMP.

Click here for more details.

Feature - Clinician

Clinicians can now delete a peer/patient feedback cycle providing:

• They have not sent any electronic requests
• Any ordered patient paper packs have not yet been dispatched.

Click here for more details.

October 2012

Feature - Appraisal

• There have been changes to the use and calculation of CPD points across Secondary Care organisations using Appraisal Toolkit. Administrators of Secondary Care Organisations now have more control over how their Clinicians claim their CPD credits when adding appraisal evidence.

1. Secondary Care Administrators can now enable/disable “Claim Impact” settings to allow or restrict clinicians from claiming double CPD points for activities which have impacted their patient or their overall practice as a clinician
2.  Secondary Care Administrators can also enable/disable “Internal and External” settings. If enabled, clinicians will be required to specify whether the points they are claiming were accrued internally or externally.

Feature - Appraiser

• A new feature available to both Primary and Secondary Care organisations allows Appraisers to adjust the Clinicians’ CPD Scores. If an Appraiser believes a clinician is under- or over-claiming their CPD points for an item, they can enter their own scores which they believe to be more appropriate. The Clinician’s score will still be visible through the appraisal, however the Appraiser’s score will take precedence during any CPD calculations.

Feature - Administrators

• Administrators in both Primary and Secondary Care organisations can now create and assign their Clinicians to Departments. This allows more control and easier management of Clinicians.

Feature - Administrators

• A new advanced Search filtering system has been added to the Administrator role. Now Clinicians can be searched for by:
  • Name
  • GMC
  • Email
  • Department
  • Specialist Category
    
    

Feature - Responsible Officer

Responsible Officers can now view MSF results with the same screen views as appraisal administrators.

Fixed: The bug causing problems with uploading documents while using Windows XP has now been fixed so documents can be uploaded with no problems.

Update: The screen text throughout the Administrator’s pages has been updated

 Feature - Administrators

Organisations can now enable settings to allow clinicians to obtain patient feedback using Appraisal Toolkit's paper based forms, as well as using the online system. More information can be found here.

September 2012

 Feature - Clinician

Clinicians can now edit their proposed PDP items if their appraisal has been un-submitted

Fixed: Appraisal Administrators can now un-submit appraisals with the status "appraising in progress"

 Feature - Clinician

 Clinicians can now re-send MSF questionnaire requests up to three times (if the recipient has not received an email in the last 7 days)

Fixed: Organisation selector now contains all Secondary Care Organisations

Profession Profile - Roles

Following feedback received from our users the tick box to identify if a performance review is undertaken has been removed.

Professional Profile – Surgical Log

Following feedback received from our users “Surgical Log” has been renamed to “Procedure Log”.

Joint Appraiser

We now have the capacity for an additional appraiser to be allocated to an appraisal by an appraisee. This “Joint Appraiser” has read only access to the appraisal information and receives email notifications in the same way that the main appraiser does. Their access is real time so they will be able to see, for example, the appraiser Summary of Discussion as it is recorded.

It is a first pass at a solution and will undoubtedly be changed and refined in the future.

It can be useful for Nurse Practitioners where the main appraisal will be with a Doctor but an NMC registrant would need access to ensure the links to the NMC code etc are correct.

It is Phase 1 for a solution requested by Northumbria for their Doctors and likely to be adopted by South Tyneside and North Cumbria.