A live implementation of P Risk_v1

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    The feasibility and acceptability of a live implementation of a psychosis risk prediction algorithm (P Risk) for use in primary care

  • IRAS ID

    325501

  • Contact name

    Sarah Sullivan

  • Contact email

    sarah.sullivan@bristol.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of Bristol

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 7 months, 31 days

  • Research summary

    Psychosis is a serious, long-lasting mental illness. Common symptoms include delusions (having strange, fixed thoughts) and hallucinations (hearing sounds or voices that others do not hear). Treatment of psychosis costs the NHS about £2 billion per year. The outcomes for people with psychosis are often poor, with many never fully recovering. The best way to improve outcomes is to accurately identify those at risk of developing psychosis, and offer them specialist care quickly.

    GPs are the first point of contact for people with mental health illnesses. However, identification of people at risk of psychosis is difficult given the insidious symptoms of this condition, and lack of care continuity in primary care. Therefore, we have developed a tool called P-Risk, which uses very large data sets of GP records, to teach computers to spot people who are at risk of developing psychosis. P Risk is accurate and can predict psychosis about 80% of the time. A feasibility study which investigates how the P-Risk works in the real world on GP computers is currently underway. We now seek to extend this work with a real time implementation study, which will indicate the feasibility of implementing P Risk in primary care practices, as part of clinical care.

    WP1: Investigation of any barriers to installing and using P Risk on live clinical records software.
    WP2: Installation of P Risk algorithm on the clinical records system of GP surgeries and collection of quantitative data on referrals during a live 6 month run of P Risk.
    WP3: Investigate practitioners’ and patients’ views and experiences of P Risk being implemented within primary care practices.

  • REC name

    East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    23/EM/0283

  • Date of REC Opinion

    2 Feb 2024

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion