Improving family history recording in general practice (lIFeLONG)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The development of an educational package for general practitioners to improve the level, quality and accuracy of family history recording in general practice.
IRAS ID
254751
Contact name
Philip Evans
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Unviersity of Exeter
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 9 days
Research summary
There is increasing use of genomics in healthcare, to personalise prevention and reduce the instance of disease. Family health history (FH) remains one of the strongest predictors of disease due to the insight it gives into a patient's genomic information. It is now more important than ever that those at high risk are readily identified, and taking a thorough FH is a cost effective and practical method of doing so. General practitioners (GPs) are considered to be in the best position to gather this FH information, due to their holistic viewpoint and commonly being the first point of patient contact. This study therefore aims to explore and optimise the level of FH recording in general practice.
The study will be a single centred study which will be in three phases. In the first phase, the study aims to comprehensively review the recording of FH in general practice. The study will be based upon a random sample of adult patients registered at one urban GP practice to summarise the current level (whether any FH is recorded), quality (the amount of detail recorded) and accuracy (whether the FH is validated by a patient questionnaire) of FH recording in a typical UK general practice.
In the second phase, the study aims to gather GP views on family history recording in general practice, by sending an online questionnaire to a sample of local GPs.
The third phase will compare these findings with educational theory to produce a pilot educational package that will be used to optimise FH recording in general practice.
The study is called 'lIFeLONG' which stands for Improving FamiLy histOry recordiNg in General practice.
REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/WM/0034
Date of REC Opinion
18 Mar 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion