Viewpoints from hepatitis C: accessing and experiencing cure (v1.0)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Access to hepatitis C treatment and experiences of cure in London: A mixed-methods pilot study with patients, healthcare practitioners and biomedical researchers
IRAS ID
233520
Contact name
Helen Ward
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
P64570, PERC InfoEd reference number
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 30 days
Research summary
This is a small-scale mixed-methods pilot study exploring patients' perspectives and experiences of assessing, committing to and completing curative hepatitis C treatment.
Beyond the well-established clinical benefits, little formal qualitative research has assessed what impact waiting for treatment or clearing HCV and being discharged from care has on a patient's mental and social well-being. With the global ambition to eliminate HCV by 2030, a lot of time and effort is aimed at getting the 200,000+ people currently living with chronic HCV engaged with services, committed to treatment, and eventually cured. To add to this, in the context of restricted access to direct-acting antiviral treatment, clinicians are being asked to ‘manage patient’s expectations’ without a clear picture of what they are.
We therefore propose to carry out clinic observations, analysis of anonymised routine health and questionnaire data and in-depth interviews with a small sample of people from three participant groups: 1) patients accessing HCV services at St Mary’s Hospital, London (before and after treatment), 2) healthcare providers delivering HCV treatment and care at St Mary’s Hospital, and 3) biomedical researchers specialising in the field. Interviews are expected to last between 30 and 90 minutes and will be arranged at a time and London-based location convenient to the participants.
Through this approach we hope to advance our understanding of local HCV care pathways, peoples’ expectations and lived experiences of cure, and identify insights that could improve the way patients with chronic hepatitis C are engaged and supported here in the future, both before treatment and once cured, and in ways that they consider suitable.
REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
17/WA/0424
Date of REC Opinion
21 Dec 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion