Asthma diagnosis clinical decision support system
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A clinical decision support system to improve asthma diagnosis in primary care: delivering a more accurate, personalised and understandable diagnostic experience
IRAS ID
262264
Contact name
Hilary Pinnock
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 8 months, 30 days
Research summary
BACKGROUND
Asthma is common in the UK. Individuals with asthma often get quite ill and need a lot of healthcare. Good asthma control helps to lessen its impact - but first it needs to be accurately diagnosed by healthcare professionals.
Most people in the UK who get asthma are diagnosed by GPs and nurses working in general practice - so we think the best way of improving its diagnosis is to improve the systems they use. We will use specially designed software to help the GP or nurse make good diagnosis decisions. This is called a clinical decision support system (CDSS). The CDSS will also help patients and parents of young patients to better understand the diagnostic process.
Our research objectives are:
1. To find out more about what health professionals need and want from a CDSS, remembering that to be successfully adopted into practice the software has to integrate with how they work, be easy to use and ideally save time.
2. To learn more from patients and parents/carers about their experience of being diagnosed with asthma so that the CDSS can then help individuals with asthma find out more about the diagnostic process.
HOW WE'LL DO IT (METHODS)
Professionals’ views
We’ll invite GPs and practice nurses to take part in either a group discussion or one-to-one interview. We’ll ask them how they diagnose asthma at the moment and get ideas for the best way to design a CDSS.
Patients’ views
We’ll also invite individuals with asthma and parents/carers of children with asthma, to take part in a group discussion and/or one-to-one interview. We’ll ask them how it felt to be diagnosed with asthma and how they think a CDSS can be specially designed to improve the patient’s experience.
REC name
London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/1722
Date of REC Opinion
5 Nov 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion