Digital Assessment Routing Tool (DART) - Pilot study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Validation and implementation of a Digital Assessment Routing Tool (DART) as an alternative to physiotherapy-led triage: A Pilot Randomised Crossover Non-Inferiority Trial.
IRAS ID
301186
Contact name
Tumi Kaminskas
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
QMUL and Bart's Health NHS trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 4 days
Research summary
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) affect 1 in 4 people and as well as being painful and affecting activities of daily living, they can also cause permanent disability and ill-health retirement. Getting the right help, from the right person, at the right time helps people to recover better from MSDs. This study assesses the safety and effectiveness of a new digital health application (DART) that assesses the user's symptoms and directs then to the best type of treatment for their problem. This could be to physiotherapy treatment, a general practitioner or another service. This would allow someone to be quickly directed to treatment any time, any place using their mobile device. We want to know how the recommendations given by DART compare with the recommendation a physiotherapist would give after completing a face-to-face assessment. We would like to investigate if DART can do this as well as the physiotherapist. Adults with an MSD seeking physiotherapy support would be eligible to take part in the study subject to screening. The study would be centred in a GP practice, with patients completing a DART assessment on a tablet device in the practice waiting room before or after they see the NHS Trust musculoskeletal physiotherapist. The study will recruit 76 patients and 3 months has been allocated to complete the data collection. Following consenting to participate in the study, patients will either complete a DART assessment and then have their normal physiotherapy triage assessment or vice versa depending on their randomisation order. The DART assessment takes on average 8 minutes to complete. They will then complete a short satisfaction questionnaire telling us how they felt about using DART. The physiotherapist's assessment will determine what treatment the patient receives.
REC name
London - Surrey Borders Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0129
Date of REC Opinion
24 Mar 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion