Blood Borne Virus Test Prompt implementation study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Implementation of a primary care clinical decision support application, BBV_TP, to increase testing for HIV and viral hepatitis
IRAS ID
312421
Contact name
Andrew Divers
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Rates of late diagnosis of HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C remain high in the UK despite national guidelines and other efforts to increase testing amongst those at risk. Earlier diagnosis and treatment improves prognosis and reduces transmission. Nationally, an estimated 100,000-150,000 people have undiagnosed BBV infections, and the NENC region has one of the highest rates of late HIV diagnosis in England.
The ultimate aim of this project is to help to improve blood-borne virus (BBV) testing in primary care. This will then add to regional and national policy objectives for the elimination HIV and Hepatitis C as diseases of public health importance.
A pilot project conducted by the applicants (Chadwick at al., AIDS, 2021, doi-10.1097/QAD.0000000000002935) evaluated BBV_TP1, a software application that triggers automated prompts to offer BBV tests. The pilot demonstrated a 3- to 5-fold increase in BBV testing in the six months following introduction of the application, although this fell again over the 3-6 months following the implementation period.
Given the demonstrated potential for this technology to increase BBV testing in primary care and other healthcare settings, it is now important to identify facilitators and barriers to implementing this technology at scale and to achieving more sustained increases in testing rates.
To achieve this, the study will:
Undertake interviews and surveys of health care workers and service users at practices where the BBV_TP has already been installed, exploring potential barriers and facilitators to wider implementation.
Design and analyse interviews guided by theories of implementation and behaviour change.
Use learning from interviews/surveys to improve BBV_TP and associated training resources.
Furthermore, any impact of BBV testing will be quantified using metrics that can be embedded into routine primary care data, developed in liaison with Public Health England and NHS Digital.
REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1
REC reference
22/ES/0036
Date of REC Opinion
14 Sep 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion