ALABAMA-VOICE Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Study title: Patient and health care professional views and experiences of penicillin allergy de-labelling in primary care: a qualitative study Short title: ALABAMA-VOICE study [Views and experiences Of prImary Care pEnicillin allergy de-labelling]
IRAS ID
365316
Contact name
Catherine Porter
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 30 days
Research summary
The purpose of the ALABAMA-VOICE study is to explore health care professional (HCP) and patient views and experiences of a penicillin allergy de-labelling scheme taking place in NHS primary care. Incorrect penicillin allergy labels (PALs) affect over three million individuals in the UK, leading to inappropriate antibiotic prescribing and exacerbating antimicrobial resistance. However, there are not enough specialist immunologist/allergists to assess everyone with a potentially incorrect PAL, so there is a need to widen patient access to penicillin allergy assessment.
An innovative new penicillin allergy de-labelling (PADL) scheme is taking place across 57 NHS GP practices in Cornwall until the end of March 2026. A HCP in each practice (likely a pharmacist, GP, or pharmacist technician) will search electronic health records to identify patients at low risk of a true allergy (i.e. patients with PAL who have received a penicillin antibiotic after the allergy was recorded) and conduct a telephone consultation to obtain an allergy-focused history and to potentially remove the PAL from a patient’s health record.
In the study, we propose to interview 15-20 HCPs and 20-25 patients taking part in this NHS PADL scheme to understand how feasible and acceptable the service is to them. Interviews will be conducted by telephone or Microsoft Teams and take up to 60 minutes (HCPs) or 45 minutes (patients). We will analyse the information gathered during the interviews to learn from these early experiences. We hope that the findings will support wider NHS adoption — to reduce incorrect penicillin allergy labels in health records, improve antibiotic use and help more patients. This will improve the impact and reach of our ALABAMA research and inform NHS service delivery.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/YH/0077
Date of REC Opinion
30 Mar 2026
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion