The key to successful product adoption is not only ensuring it integrates with existing systems and workflows – but that it’s intuitive to use and accessible to all.
Understanding how well your product exchanges data with other systems and ensuring it’s suitable for its intended use are critical to passing the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC).
The key to DTAC and successful product adoption is not only ensuring it integrates with existing systems and workflows – but that it’s intuitive to use and accessible to all. Understanding how well your product exchanges data with other systems and ensuring it’s suitable for its intended use are critical to passing the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC).
Everybody wants a seamless journey through the health and care system. Once approved for use, your product will become part of that journey.
To make that happen, your product’s interoperability will need to be assessed to ensure data is communicated accurately and quickly, while staying safe and secure. The Interoperability section of the DTAC is a pass or fail assessment.
The Accessibility and Usability section of the DTAC ensures your product has followed best practice guidance for development. It also aims to identify if and how user needs have been incorporated into your product design, and how you plan to continue user feedback and engagement in future.
This DTAC section provides an overall compliance rating for your product in terms of Accessibility and Usability.
For a quick and easy way to ensure your product meets the DTAC standard for interoperability, accessibility and usability, book a free, no-obligation discovery call with one of our DTAC experts.
For a quick and easy way to ensure your product meets the DTAC standard for interoperability, accessibility and usability, book a free, no-obligation discovery call with one of our DTAC experts.
The hardware, software and data within your product must be interoperable, regardless of whether it’s patient-facing or interfaces and communicates with a clinical records system.
High standards of interoperability reduce cost, complexity and delivery timescales for the NHS and social care providers by standardising specifications and integrations. To achieve a pass rating for interoperability, your Application Programme Interfaces (APIs) should:
Conform with the Government Digital Services Open API Best Practices (including for the use of appropriate identifiers)
Be clearly documented
Be freely available with reasonable access for third party integration
The interoperability NHS criteria is a pass or fail assessment. Our full support involves
Review of your product/ system to assess the likelihood of achieving a pass rating
Review of your existing documentation
Advice on open API best practices and recommended improvements
Development of additional evidence to demonstrate your compliance with the open standards for APIs
Access to your personalised DTAC Portal to demonstrate your pass status with links to key documents to support external assurance assessments
Review of your product/ system to assess the likelihood of achieving a pass rating
Review of your existing documentation
Advice on open API best practices and recommended improvements
Development of additional evidence to demonstrate your compliance with the open standards for APIs
Access to your personalised DTAC Portal to demonstrate your pass status with links to key documents to support external assurance assessments
The Accessibility and Usability section of the DTAC sets a compliance rating for your product. It also establishes areas of non-compliance where you are required to improve and is scored in relation to the NHS service standard and conformity against NHS best practice.
Demonstrate you have considered users’ needs – i.e. through user research, search data, analytics or other data, along with your methods of user engagement
Confirm and evidence users’ needs have been tested with appropriate stakeholders and that this is part of an ongoing process
Provide supporting evidence to show your product solves a whole user problem, or how your product fits into the patient journey
Provide supporting evidence to demonstrate you have undertaken user acceptance testing activities to validate the usability of your product
Demonstrate compliance with the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 level AA, including a public link to a published accessibility statement
Confirm the availability of a multi-disciplinary team with a mix of skills and perspectives
Use agile ways of working
Provide confirmation that your product is being continually iterated and developed
Evidence a benefits use case with clear, measurable objectives and metrics
Confirm your product meets the requirements of the NHS Cloud First Strategy and the NHS Internet First Policy
Confirm and outline the open standards, common components and patterns you have adopted
To help you achieve an optimum usability and accessibility rating, we’ll:
Review your product and any accessibility policies in relation to the criteria to help assess your current rating
Work with you to put measures in place to increase your score (where required)
Develop supporting evidence (where required) to help you demonstrate and achieve the optimal level of compliance
Provide access to your personalised DTAC Portal to help you clearly evidence your compliance and present your final score in a user-friendly dashboard which is accessible by third-parties
Review your product and any accessibility policies in relation to the criteria to help assess your current rating
Work with you to put measures in place to increase your score (where required)
Develop supporting evidence (where required) to help you demonstrate and achieve the optimal level of compliance
Provide access to your personalised DTAC Portal to help you clearly evidence your compliance and present your final score in a user-friendly dashboard which is accessible by third-parties
Interoperability is all about ensuring different technologies can seamlessly exchange data and information with each other. A positive approach to interoperability reduces expenditure, complexity and delivery times by standardising technology and simplifying integration. In DTAC terms, interoperability means identifying where information may need to be exchanged with other systems and technology that may be in use, and ensuring that this can happen accurately and quickly whilst staying safe and secure. This will usually mean adopting Application Programme Interfaces (APIs) which follow the Government Digital Services Open API Best Practices, are documented and freely available, and can be accessed by third parties so that different technologies can be integrated and used alongside one another.
The importance of interoperability in health and social care and its role in seamlessly integrating digital health tech products and systems across boundaries cannot be overstated. Interoperability allows information and data to be shared and exchanged seamlessly so for example, information about patient medications, allergies, intolerances and/or prescriptions, can be used across all NHS and social care clinical IT systems to improve clinical safety, efficiency and patient outcomes. Whilst this is clearly beneficial for patients, it also allows staff to focus on care delivery, helping to further improve patient experience.
Usability and accessibility in DTAC ensures that a health tech product or system has followed best practice as set out within the NHS service standard.
In DTAC, usability is used to measure the quality of the user experience when they are interacting with a health tech product or system. It assesses the approach that has been taken to understand users and their needs when designing the technology, as well as the range of skills within the team which are drawn upon when building and operating the service to ensure this remains safe and secure at all times. It also assesses how the technology supports users’ ability to effectively accomplish their goals quickly, easily and in a joined up manner as well as the approach to improving the technology over time in response to testing, performance monitoring, feedback and changing needs. Together this ensures that a product or system is “user friendly”.
A product with good usability creates a satisfying user experience which can in turn increase usage and productivity. Commissioners will often select products with good usability so investing in usability testing can save health tech companies time and money in the long run by exposing design flaws before they are rolled out.
Accessibility in DTAC ensures that all users, and particularly those with health conditions or impairments, can access the product or system effectively without compromise. The DTAC also encourages technology which is intended to be used in the NHS to learn from the research and experience of others in this area and to avoid repeating work that’s already been done by adopting common styles, components and patterns already developed by other technologies which are used across the NHS and UK Government. Prioritising accessibility in the design and delivery of the product or system increases the usability for all users, regardless of their personal ability.
Yes, you cannot achieve DTAC compliance without these elements included as part of your overall DTAC submission. You must be able to demonstrate expected interoperability standards to pass the DTAC and your score against the accessibility and usability criteria allows your product to be assessed in comparison to other similar products and services.
Each section (or code) of the Accessibility and Usability section of the DTAC is weighted differently with the score ranging from 2.5% to 20%. The maximum percentage you can be awarded for each section is dependent on how you meet the scoring criteria.
You are not required to achieve 100% against the Accessibility and Usability criteria in order to be compliant with the DTAC, however this section allows your product to be assessed in comparison to other similar products and services.
For a quick and easy way to ensure your product meets the DTAC standard for interoperability, accessibility and usability, book a free, no-obligation discovery call with one of our DTAC experts.
For a quick and easy way to ensure your product meets the DTAC standard for interoperability, accessibility and usability, book a free, no-obligation discovery call with one of our DTAC experts.
