Getting started
This is our generic getting started guide. If you’re using Concentric at a large healthcare organisation there may be a specific getting started guide, including local integration and support details in our list of organisation getting started guides.
There are three different onboarding guides, depending on your planned use of Concentric and the access provided to you. Please select the onboarding guide that you require:
Clinician user - ability to view, create, and edit consent episodes.
Read-only user - view episodes only, for example to view the consent in theatre.
Administrator - manage user accounts and view usage dashboards.
Getting started
Clinician user
We're a small team solely focused on improving the consent process, and we hope you enjoy the move over to digital consent. You can read about the team and why we're working on Concentric in our about us page. Most healthcare software is difficult to use, slow, and gets in the way. We hope you soon agree that using Concentric feels pretty different.
Why switch to digital consent?
After using Concentric, the vast majority of clinicians state that they prefer digital consent to the traditional paper process, that the quality of the consent process is improved, and that their time is better utilised.
Patients report improved shared decision making quality, appreciate that their consent information is increasingly accessible and clearly presented, and allows them to revisit the information in their own time.
Read more about the benefits of introducing digital consent and watch our intro video.
How is Concentric used?
Using Concentric is simple, and most clinicians take only a few minutes to get accustomed to how it works. Below is a 30-minute demonstration that outlines how Concentric is used in different clinical scenarios and should give you the confidence to start using Concentric with your next patient.
Some scenarios are not relevant for every clinician, for example the consent form 2 scenario, so use the sections within the video if you'd prefer to only view the scenarios that are relevant to you. You can also change the speed of the video within the settings.
There are additional guides available covering the use of Consent Form 2 and Consent Form 4 scenarios, and what 'additional consents' are, and the process for these within Concentric.
If you'd prefer to read rather than watch a guide of how Concentric is used there is a written workflow guide covering the information in the video. You must return to this page to review the subsequent onboarding information as this is not within the linked page.
Let’s get you started
When your account was set up you’ll have received an email from Concentric with initial instructions regarding activating your account. Depending on how you’ll login to Concentric this will have either told you which single sign-on provider to use or will have asked you to set your password.
You can then access Concentric at app.concentric.health (or if you’ve been given demo access to Concentric this is at demo.concentric.health). Concentric can be accessed from anywhere, on any web-enabled device that meets our browser support policy - you should ensure that you have read the policy prior to using Concentric. The integrations with other systems work the same regardless of where you are accessing from.
To get comfortable with using Concentric, most clinicians try it out with a test patient record initially. Each Concentric deployment has some test patients set up, usually you can search for ‘test-patient’ in the search bar but if that doesn’t work email support@concentric.health and we’ll direct you to your test patient records.
Finding a patient record
In most cases Concentric is integrated with patient demographics, meaning that to find a patient record simply search using their identification number (depending on your deployment of Concentric this might be a hospital number, clinic number or national identifier such as an NHS number).
On selecting a patient, ensure that it is the correct patient so that no consent information is assigned to the incorrect patient.
If your deployment is not integrated with patient demographics there are some additional details about creating patient records here.
WHO Surgical Safety Checklist
On the day of treatment completed consent episode details are viewed on screen and do not need to be printed out. Depending on whether your deployment is integrated with other systems, this is either viewed within Concentric by clicking the ‘View consent form PDF’ button, or within the main electronic health record.
Important clinical safety considerations
As part of using the Concentric application you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to the following statements:
- As a clinician you maintain the clinical responsibility for the consent interaction and the appropriateness of consent information being selected, documented, and shared with the patient.
- The information within a treatment template may change over time as part of Concentric Health's review processes or due to local requests for changes. In most cases these changes will not be directly communicated to an individual clinician. It is the clinician's responsibility to ensure, for each consent episode, that the information being shared is appropriate for the patient.
- Information provided within Concentric should be consistent with, and supplementary to a consent conversation between clinician and patient. Information shared as part of the Concentric process sits alongside but does not replace the need for a consent conversation.
- As a clinician it is your responsibility to read and adhere to the professional responsibilities and standards set out by the General Medical Council in their guidance, Decision Making and Consent.
- As per the AoMRC guidance on Responsible Clinicians, each patient and consent episode should have a clinician who is responsible for their care - their 'Responsible Clinician' - usually the consultant. This is documented in Concentric. If your Concentric account is assigned as a 'Responsible Clinician', this element within the clinician view will default to you. Otherwise, you will need to search for and select the Responsible Clinician. (In some cases, an individual who is not generally considered a 'Responsible Clinician' can be acting in this capacity for a consent epiosde. For this reason they can assign themselves, but this should generally be considered as an exception.)
- When delegating consent, you must ensure that the practitioner has the relevant training and knowledge to undertake this and if not, make alternative arrangements which may include training and direct supervision.
- When the process of obtaining consent has been delegated to you, you should only undertake this if you have the appropriate training and knowledge. You must let your colleague know if you are not able to meet this standard, and ask for support. You must not practice outside your area of competence.
- Where the clinician and patient do not share a spoken language professional interpretation services should be used to facilitate the consent conversation. Translated Concentric information can be used alongside, but should not be used instead of an interpreter.
- It is important that patients have access to their consent information. Whilst most patients will receive this digitally it is important that consent information is printed and shared with patients when digital access is not possible.
- To ensure the security of patient health data and reliability of the audit trail you must log out following clinical use, and you must not share access credentials. All interactions within Concentric are associated with your name and clinical practice registration.
- When needing to enter patient contact details you should ensure accurate data entry so that information is successfully received and not inappropriately shared with a different individual.
- Following departmental transitioning to digital consent it is important to only use digital consent (outside of some business continuity plan scenarios) in order to minimise confusion and potential errors within the healthcare system.
- You must only view a patient's consent information where you have a legitimate professional reason for doing so.
Clinician consent statements
To simplify the process, the clinician receiving the patient's consent automatically adds an electronic signature to the consent form PDF as part of being logged in and going through the consent flow with the patient (consult view), or by enabling remote consent.
The electronic signature is associated with the following two statements, added to the 'Statement of health professional' section on the consent form PDF:
- I have explained the [surgery/procedure/treatment/investigation] (appropriate term used depending on the template), including the intended benefits and serious- or frequently occurring risks described in this document to the patient.
- I have also discussed what the [surgery/procedure/treatment/investigation] (appropriate term used depending on the template) is likely to involve, the benefits and risks of any alternative treatment (including no treatment), and any particular concerns of the patient.
You should ensure that you are comfortable that the above is true prior to progressing through the consent flow in consult view or enabling remote consent.
Release notes
Concentric is shaped by what our clinician, read-only, and patient users tell us, and we are always looking to improve based on this feedback. We regularly release updates to Concentric with new and improved product features, and updated clinical content.
You can read our product release notes and content release notes to see the updates that we've made recently. The list of all the treatment templates currently available within Concentric, presented by specialty, is maintained in our treatment template list.
Support and contact details
If you are having any issues getting started with Concentric, a problem arises, or you need an account set up, please contact as per the guidance below. You can also explore our knowledge bank for answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) from users and deploying teams.
Email: support@concentric.health
Log in now!Supplementary information
This information is only relevant to some users, and is linked to from the relevant sections above.
Creating a patient record
If your deployment is not integrated with patient demographics then a patient record needs to be created within Concentric before a first episode is created. You’ll know this is the case if you’re offered the option to ‘Add a new patient with this number’ after search for a patient. Creating a new patient record involves adding some basic demographics:
In this non-integrated scenario you should ensure that all the patient demographic fields are correct prior to creating the patient record as errors are associated with clinical risk and may mean that it is difficult to find the record in future, and may mean that consent episodes associated to the patient record cannot be used to confirm that consent has been given (for example in theatre).
Getting started
Read-only user
Read-only accounts can view consent episodes, but are not able to create or edit consent episode. These accounts have a banner stating this at the top of each page.
This 10-minute demonstration shares how Concentric is used as a read-only user, and what functionality is possible with this type of account.
Let’s get you started
When your account was set up you’ll have received an email from Concentric with initial instructions regarding activating your account. Depending on how you’ll login to Concentric this will have either told you which single sign-on provider to use or will have asked you to set your password.
You can then access Concentric at app.concentric.health (or if you’ve been given demo access to Concentric this is at demo.concentric.health). Concentric can be accessed from anywhere, on any web-enabled device that meets our browser support policy - you should ensure that you have read the policy prior to using Concentric. The integrations with other systems work the same regardless of where you are accessing from.
To get comfortable with using Concentric, most clinicians try it out with a test patient record initially. Each Concentric deployment has some test patients set up, usually you can search for ‘test-patient’ in the search bar but if that doesn’t work email support@concentric.health and we’ll direct you to your test patient records.
Finding a patient record
In most cases Concentric is integrated with patient demographics, meaning that to find a patient record simply search using their identification number (depending on your deployment of Concentric this might be a hospital number, clinic number or national identifier such as an NHS number).
If your deployment is not integrated with patient demographics there are some additional details about creating patient records here.
WHO Surgical Safety Checklist
On the day of treatment completed consent episode details are viewed on screen and do not need to be printed out. Depending on whether your deployment is integrated with other systems, this is either viewed within Concentric by clicking the ‘View consent form PDF’ button, or within the main electronic health record.
Appropriate use
As part of using the Concentric application you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to the following statements:
- You must only view a patient's consent information where you have a legitimate professional reason for doing so.
- To ensure the security of patient health data you must log out following use, and you must not share access credentials.
Release notes
Concentric is shaped by what our clinician, read-only, and patient users tell us, and we are always looking to improve based on this feedback. We regularly release updates to Concentric with new and improved product features, and updated clinical content.
You can read our product release notes and content release notes to see the updates that we've made recently. The list of all the treatment templates currently available within Concentric, presented by specialty, is maintained in our treatment template list.
Support and contact details
If you are having any issues getting started with Concentric, a problem arises, or you need an account set up, please contact as per the guidance below. You can also explore our knowledge bank for answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) from users and deploying teams.
Email: support@concentric.health
Log in now!Supplementary information
This information is only relevant to some users, and is linked to from the relevant sections above.
Creating a patient record
If your deployment is not integrated with patient demographics then a patient record needs to be created within Concentric before a first episode is created. You’ll know this is the case if you’re offered the option to ‘Add a new patient with this number’ after search for a patient. Creating a new patient record involves adding some basic demographics:
In this non-integrated scenario you should ensure that all the patient demographic fields are correct prior to creating the patient record as errors are associated with clinical risk and may mean that it is difficult to find the record in future, and may mean that consent episodes associated to the patient record cannot be used to confirm that consent has been given (for example in theatre).