The feasibility of HIV detection using primary care IT systems
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A feasibility study to develop within primary care IT systems a computer program for flagging patients with risk factors for HIV who would benefit from having an HIV test
IRAS ID
207977
Contact name
Mark Gompels
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 30 days
Research summary
Title: Is a program flagging HIV indicator diseases and risk factors, run on GP computer systems, able to detect those patients at risk of HIV who would benefit from having an HIV test and then engage them in care earlier?
Over 100,000 people are living with Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the UK, a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. If HIV-positive people are treated early and well then they have a near normal life expectancy and are less likely to infect others with their HIV accidently. However, a quarter of people infected with HIV do not know that they carry the virus. Although you could test (screen) everyone for HIV, this would not be cost effective. We want to better target testing to people who are most likely to have HIV. Patients with HIV often see their GP with other illnesses which can be due to HIV before their HIV is detected as the cause. This study is funded by North Bristol NHS Trust (Research Capability Funding) which aims to develop a computer program to alert the practice that an individual should be offered an HIV test by their GP when the patient visits them in the surgery. To be able to do this we need to know what signs and symptoms people with HIV go to their GP with. This type of patient data is collected routinely from health information from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), and we will use this data to build the program (a risk prediction algorithm). We will further assess performance of the program in an analysis of general practice data in two local practice data systems. There will be no offer of tests or actual testing of any patients for HIV, this study is purely to ascertain proof of principle.
REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SW/0286
Date of REC Opinion
19 Sep 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion