ExpertCare

A high impact medicines optimisation solution for CVD risk management

CVD remains a leading cause of death and disability in the UK. Preventable yet often poorly managed, it drives avoidable admissions, rising costs, and health inequalities—highlighting the urgent need for new, system-wide models of hypertension care.

Every three minutes, someone in the UK dies of a heart attack or stroke. Many deaths are premature and could have been avoided if patient had been optimally treated.

Hypertension and hypercholesterolemia control remains an unmet challenge

CVD drives a dual burden of personal suffering and heavy NHS costs

CVD is a leading cause of death and disability in the UK. Though preventable and treatable, late diagnosis and poor management fuel avoidable admissions, higher costs, and health inequalities – making new system-wide hypertension models essential.

Increasing incidence of CVD, aging population, pressures on primary care – is standard care failing?

Standard care is failing as leading cardiovascular organisations have acknowledged, current approaches are no longer fit for purpose.

A new approach - systemised and automated virtual care works

By automating elements of decision-making and integrating seamlessly with EMIS and SystmOne, ExpertCare enhances workforce productivity, ensures NICE concordance, and enables system-level efficiencies.

How it works

In the clinician workflow, at the point- of-care

ExpertCare is a fast, easy-to-use digital solution that supports clinicians in personalised, evidence-based CVD medicines optimisation by using patient context to enable precise and timely prescribing decisions. It considers:

Comorbidities • therapeutic history • current clinical status • guidelines

Lowestoft PCN: An Example of Success

Lowestoft Hypertension (Healthy Hearts) project. A HTN meds review of 3,600 patients in 7 GP practices over 8-months (Nov 2024 – July 2025). Results: 85.5% of responding patients achieved BP control due to the intervention together with an average drop of 21 mmHg in Systolic and mmHg 10.3 in Diastolic, in patients who had uncontrolled hypertension after first review.

7 GP practices

3.600 patients

85.5% BP control rate achieved

21 mmHg Systolic and 10.3 mmHg diastolic reduction in cohort mean BP

Supports task-shifting and reduces variation in care

ExpertCare combines a rules-based AI optimisation engine with pharmacist-led implementation methodologies to streamline and speed up CVD medicines review and optimisation prescribing.  

Tailored patient prescribing

Automatically considers patient demographics and history

Personalised prescribing optimisation is reliant on having access to the right information at the right time. Our super-fast clinical codes search capabilities together with our certified Electronic Health Record integration API gives prescribers instant access to the vital patient information needed to make an accurate prescribing decision.

Ensures compliance with gold standard guidelines

Medicines is the most common intervention in healthcare and proper medicines prescribing is complicated especially when treating multiple conditions in a single patient. ExpertCare’s digital protocol-driven medication optimisation and intensification solution helps translate evidence-based guidance into common practice ensuring cost-effective treatment outcomes.

Boosts task-shifting and lightens the GP load

Our solution is designed to take the strain of chronic condition medicines management off primary care doctors by boosting task-shifting and empowering nurses and pharmacists to undertake complex prescribing. It bridges gaps in clinician knowledge of evidence-based therapeutic guidelines and reduces variation in healthcare delivery leading to significant gains in patient treatment outcomes and avoids unnecessary costs.

Clinical safety, data accuracy and security vital to our approach

The solution has been co-designed with frontline clinicians and health system partners through iterative development and independent usability studies, confirming its intuitiveness, clinical relevance, and benefits for complex patients.

Our health industry standards compliant APIs allows for seamless integrations with leading Electronic Health Records solutions. ExpertCare meets all NHS data and other regulatory requirements including NHSE, MHRA and DTAC.

Evidence shows ExpertCare is cost-saving in both the short- and long-term

Independent evaluations, show ExpertCare delivers immediate and long-term savings, halving the cost of hypertension and cholesterol reviews. Across thousands of patients, it consistently improves blood pressure control (average 20mmHg systolic reduction in uncontrolled patients), achieves an ROI of £2.60 per £1 spent, and reduces vascular events—extending life expectancy and narrowing health inequalities.

Medicines optimisation. When everyone benefits.

Ensuring that patients are prescribed the right medicines, at the right time, in the right doses.

Lowering blood pressure and lipids reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke and death

It’s about you, me, and the ones we love

ExpertCare ensures optimum therapeutic outcomes for patients through improved medication use and reduces the risk of adverse events. Our patient-centered process creates treatment plans focused on each patient’s medication-related goals. This eliminates variations and inequalities in care.

Alleviates GP practice pressures

Boosts practice productivity and income

Beyond improving outcomes, ExpertCare saves clinician time and costs, empowers pharmacy teams with evidence-based recommendations, standardised workflows, and robust analytics to reduce risk, optimise therapy, and enhance patient care.

"Cardiovascular disease (CVD) detection and management is the most impactful area for saving lives over the next decade."

Source: NHS England

Suboptimal medicine use drives hospitalisations, costs, and poor adherence. Improving prescribing and monitoring enhances outcomes, efficiency, and ensures patients and healthcare payers gain greater value from investments in medicines and care.

Flexible deployment models enabling delivery at scale

Whether a single GP practice, a Primary Care Network, Neighbourhood or ICS, ExpertCare  offers a range of flexible deployment models—standalone, turnkey, or mentored—ensuring that health system – big or small can adopt the solution in alignment with resources and priorities.

1.

Solution only:

The practice conducts the process in-house, supported by EC, with a flat per-patient fee covering solution support and maintenance.

2.

Turnkey service:

DXS delivers a complete “virtual always” hypertension control programme using contracted clinical pharmacists, priced per registered patient.

3.

Mentor mode:

A blended approach where PCNs provide staff (e.g. ARRS-funded pharmacists or prescribing nurses) while DXS supplies training, mentorship, and project management, with a per-patient fee.

Outcomes are transparent, measurable, and contractually defined, with embedded tracking systems providing auditable data across patient engagement, control rates, NICE compliance, and practice resource utilisation.

From Evidence to Action

ExpertCare has been extensively tested in real-world settings, proving its clinical value, seamless workflow integration, and ability to generate the evidence needed for wider commissioning. Co-designed with frontline clinicians and health system partners, and refined through independent usability studies, it is intuitive, clinically relevant, and effective for managing complex patients.

About Us

ExpertCare is a DXS International plc product. DXS is a UK-based company with extensive experience in respect of working in health care systems. This extends into the development, deployment, administrative and support and maintenance domains.

It is an NHS accredited suppliers its solutions are listed on several NHS Frameworks including the primary care GPIT-F Framework.

The company’s solutions are deployed at about  2 000 primary care sites (general practices) across the UK that service the primary health care needs of an estimated 17 million patients. Its software solutions comply with all NHSE Digital functional and non-functional requirements.

What ExpertCare Users Have To Say

Frequently asked questions

All your questions answered.

What is ExpertCare?

DXS ExpertCare is an expert system which provides prescribing advice with the dual objectives of controlling the patient’s blood pressure to an appropriate target, whilst also achieving conformance with treatments recommended by NICE for the management of hypertension and relevant comorbidities.

Unlike other clinical decision support software which makes recommendations based on one comorbidity at a time, ExpertCare will make a recommendation based on any combination of the following conditions:

  • Diabetes (all types)
  • Proteinuria (defined as an ACR › 30)
  • Angina
  • Myocardial Infarction (recent (i.e. ‹ 1year) and past (i.e. › 1year))
  • Atrial fibrillation
  • Heart failure

ExpertCare thus overcomes one of the main criticisms of NICE, that the guidelines are monothematic, and therefore difficult to implement in real-world situations where patients have comorbidities.

The six conditions listed above have been chosen for the following reasons:

  • They have a significant impact on hypertension treatment decisions
  • NICE makes recommendations on appropriate prescribing for these conditions
  • Hypertension management needs to consider the wider risks conferred by comorbidity

ExpertCare interprets the patient’s coded electronic record to infer the presence of any condition which might influence the treatment of hypertension and provides context sensitive advice taken from the SPC of all drugs used in the treatment of hypertension.

The clinician is notified of

  • Drug indications, cautions and contraindications
  • Advice on initiation, monitoring and discontinuation
  • Routine dosage advice
  • Dose adjustments required in the presence of renal or hepatic impairment

However, it is up to the prescriber to evaluate this information based on clinical context. For example, childhood asthma might be a caution to the issue of a beta-blocker whereas current asthma would be a contraindication.

The prescriber can continue a hypertension drug for any indication but will be asked for a reason which will be recorded for the benefit of future users. Further recommendations by ExpertCare will take into consideration the retained drug. For example, clonidine retained for the prophylaxis of migraine.

ExpertCare does not duplicate the functionality of the GP healthcare record where interactions are highlighted when a new drug is added. In our next version of ExpertCare, we will add warnings to flag up the risk of bradycardia with certain drug combinations. Similarly, we will also indicate when there is an increased likelihood of hyperkalaemia.

ExpertCare will record the reason for not taking a drug class to inform future consultations. The clinician can then ask for a further recommendation.

In this situation, ExpertCare is sophisticated in that it always makes recommendations which support the effective management of relevant comorbidity. For example, a patient with hypertension and atrial fibrillation, who opts not to take a beta-blocker, will be recommended a rate-limiting calcium channel blocker instead.

ExpertCare has the functionality to indicate a drug which belongs to a local formulary.

CVD medicines optimisation using Standard Care

Most GP practices continue to manage CVD at-risk patients through a traditional “standard care” model. In this approach, administrative staff oversee call and recall for blood pressure reviews, patients attend the practice to have their blood pressure and occasionally other tests carried out by a nurse or healthcare assistant, and, when medication adjustments are required, they are referred on to already overstretched GPs for review.

The problem:

Key barriers to optimal care include an increasing number of CVD patients (aging population), and the absence of a focused, systemised and automated review methodology. This is compounded by pressures on primary care and clinician time constraints, guideline complexity, and insufficient decision support tools.

CVD medicines optimisation using Virtual Care Model

Patients are risk-stratified and prioritised for review. Updated blood pressures are collected remotely via SMS or telephone, while cholesterol monitoring is arranged through blood test requests. Once results are received, patients needing medication changes are reviewed virtually: a proposed adjustment is made, patient consent obtained, the prescription updated, and the patient informed with a new review date scheduled.

Why it works:

Our solution is designed to take the strain of CVD medicines management off primary care doctors by automating processes, boosting task-shifting and empowering nurses and pharmacists to undertake complex prescribing. Critically, our virtual care model is designed to extend care into patients’ homes, overcoming barriers faced by hard to reach or deprived and underserved populations where hypertension incidence and stroke risk are disproportionately high.

The ExpertCare Process

1.

Each month the hypertension register is used to produce a cohort of patients to review

2.

Admin person contacts patients for updated BP by SMS/phone

3.

Responses saved to patients record

4.

Pharmacist conducts a medicines review for each uncontrolled patient using ExpertCare

5.

Clinician saves new treatment plan to patient’s record

6.

Approval sought for medicine changes

7.

Pharmacist updates prescribing module and sets next review reminder

Massive reductions in cardiovascular events

A meta-analysis study showed that a 10 mm Hg reduction of systolic blood pressure reduced the risk of:

  • Major cardiovascular disease events by 20%
  • Coronary heart disease by 17%
  • Stroke by 27%
  • Heart failure by 28%,
  • Death from all causes by 13%.

The study strongly supports offering drug treatments to reduce systolic blood pressure levels to less than 130 mm Hg to all people regardless of whether they have a history of cardiovascular disease, diabetes or chronic kidney disease.

Taking strain off GP practices

ExpertCare (EC) is designed to take the strain of CVD medicines management off primary care clinicians by automating processes, boosting task-shifting and empowering nurses and pharmacists to undertake complex prescribing. It enhances primary care efficiency—a critical capability given the global shortage of clinical staff. It cuts the cost of HTN and cholesterol medicine reviews by 50% compared to usual care.

Generates financial rewards for GP practices

The platform directly supports achievement of QOF targets, which increasingly prioritise hypertension and cholesterol management. Meeting these targets not only improves patient outcomes but also secures vital financial incentives.

The CVD toll

In England (2019/20), CVD accounted for about 1 million hospital admissions leading to 5.5 million bed days. CVD related conditions cost the health system an estimated £7.4 billion and the economy an estimated £15.8 billion a year. One in 6 people will have a stroke during their lifetime and social care costs to the UK economy for stroke survivors are estimated at £5.2 billion annually.

Saving lives and money

NHS England estimates that increasing the proportion of people with hypertension who are well-managed from 70% to 80% in 3 years would lead to nearly 2.24 million fewer healthcare episodes 167 across primary care, outpatients and inpatients over a 10-year period, freeing up GPs and contributing to progress on elective waiting times. And, increasing lipid management rates to 90% of people with CVD currently untreated with statins could prevent ~14,000 heart attacks, strokes and deaths over 3 years.