Vantage is about seeing risk earlier across a whole patient population. Clinical teams receive many signals: appointments, laboratory results, prescriptions, messages and hospital admissions. These do not always arrive together or provide a clear picture of how someone is doing between visits.
Knowing what a service can see
We use the term observability to describe how well a service can understand a patient’s current situation from the information available, with enough timeliness and confidence to act. A completed test is useful only if its meaning is understood and the appropriate response follows.
A gap in contact can have different explanations. Someone may be well, receiving care elsewhere or facing barriers to follow-up. Missing information should not be mistaken for either reassurance or evidence of deterioration. Vantage asks how those situations can be distinguished without recalling everyone for the same assessment.
The evidence behind the questions
Our study of emergency admissions in Lothian showed that patterns of hospital use vary with age and need. Three per cent of the IBD cohort accounted for half of IBD-related hospital bed-days, while infection was the commonest admission cause among people over 60. These findings help us ask where closer follow-up could make the greatest difference and how care should respond to changing needs.
Current work
We are developing ways to describe clinical states, monitoring gaps and healthcare use across the registry. The research asks which signals suggest a need for review, how uncertainty should be shown and how priorities can reflect the capacity of the team responding to them.
This work contributes to SENTINEL as we prepare for a feasibility study. Proposed approaches need evaluation with patients and clinical teams before routine use. The aim is timely, practical support: making important changes easier to recognise while avoiding unnecessary tests, appointments and anxiety for people who are well.