CMS for medical guidelines

Background

NHG publishes national clinical guidelines for GPs, captured in the NHG formulary—used when prescribing, among other tasks. About 65% of Dutch GPs access it through their practice information system (HIS).

A legacy CMS at its limits

Authoring new formulary content was slow, manual, and error-prone.

Years of feature creep left unused capabilities in place; releases still depended on risky manual steps. NHG needed a platform that could grow with modern editorial demands.

Designing a new CMS together

Sping was asked to design and build bespoke software so NHG could maintain the formulary safely and efficiently.

Three weeks of design, three months agile delivery

An NHG product owner anchored the project. Three weeks of research and prototyping produced a refreshed UX that was tested thoroughly with editors.

An agile team delivered the first CMS version within three months of iterative sprints—an important introduction to agile ways of working for NHG as well.

Outcomes: fewer mistakes, more focus on content

Faster navigation

Powerful search and contextual panels reduce clicks and keep large datasets legible.

Clearer authoring

Breadcrumbs and linked models show exactly what editors change and how it impacts downstream data.

Confident publishing

Change logs accelerate reviews; releases are largely automated so non-specialists can ship updates safely.

Under the hood

Flexible yet robust

Docker gives every developer a production-like environment and supports agile rituals.

Safety first

A current Ruby on Rails stack, firewall protection, and Sidekiq automation replaced slow manual jobs.

Data migration

Line-by-line validation against the legacy exporter proved parity before GPs received the new feeds.

NHG met deadlines and budget, learned agile delivery, and continues to expand the roadmap for future-proof tooling.

“Sping really immersed themselves in our context … we shipped far more than originally envisioned.” — Annetje Dieleman, product owner

“Professional and personable—transparent communication and technology that truly fits us. A huge step forward.” — Zamire Damen, NHG editor