Advanced Controlled Drug (CD) Dashboard (2025)

NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB

Project summary

The Medicines Optimisation team at NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborugh ICB developed the Advanced Controlled Drug (CD) Dashboard, a pioneering tool designed to enhance the safety and optimisation of controlled drug prescribing across our integrated care system.

Recognising the limitations of solely practice-level data in identifying individual patients at higher risk, this solution leverages sophisticated data queries against national data (ePact) to generate a more granular view of prescribing patterns.

By calculating and monitoring daily defined doses (DDDs) at a more refined level, the dashboard identifies patients potentially exceeding safe prescribing thresholds (one, two, three, four or more times the DDD). This proactive approach allows for targeted intervention and prioritisation of patients who may benefit from medication review, ultimately aiming to reduce the risk of harm associated with controlled drug use.

The CD Dashboard is designed to empower clinicians and inform strategic oversight.

For end-users like our lead CD pharmacist, the intuitive Microsoft Excel format presents data through clear tables and impactful visualisations. Stacked bar charts, segmented by RAG (red, amber, green) ratings based on DDD thresholds, immediately highlight practices with the highest proportions of potentially high-risk patients.

These visualisations are further supported by detailed breakdowns of specific medicines and volumes within the amber and red categories, enabling clinicians with practice-level access to efficiently pinpoint individuals for review.

For senior management and regional teams, the dashboard offers a high-level overview through a series of "dials" – visually engaging pie/donut charts for each key controlled drug type (e.g., Tramadol, Oxycodone). These dials clearly display the proportion of patients within each RAG rating, with the number of "red" (highest risk) patients prominently featured as an alert. This provides an at-a-glance understanding of prescribing trends and areas requiring attention across the ICB.

While in its early stages of implementation, the Advanced CD Dashboard has already generated significant interest from other ICBs, regional bodies, and the team at PrescQIPP. Its innovative approach to extracting and visualising patient-level insights from aggregated national data has been recognised as a potential model for wider adoption, promising a more proactive and patient-centred approach to controlled drug safety across the NHS.