JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Point of Care Testing (POCT) for influenza promises to provide real-time information to influence clinical decision-making and improve patient outcomes. Public Health England has published a toolkit to assist implementation of these tests in the NHS.

Objective:

A feasibility study will be undertaken to assess the implementation of influenza POCT in primary care as part of a sentinel surveillance network.

Methods:

We will conduct a mixed methodology study to assess the feasibility of integrating influenza POCT into primary care workflows and the utility of data from POCT for sentinel surveillance. The study will take place between February 2019 and May 2019 within six general practices that are part of the English sentinel surveillance network run by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC)

Results:

The primary outcome is the number of valid influenza swabs taken and tested by the practices involved in the study using the new POCT. Secondary outcomes will include the utility of the implementation of influenza POCT in the following domains • Performance of the POCT platform • Clinical pathways and training, including barriers and facilitators for conducting POCT especially collecting samples across a representative age-group • Result reporting • Clinical governance • Costs • Monitoring of effectiveness

Conclusions:

This is the first time an evaluation study has been undertaken on point of care testing for influenza in general practice in the UK as far as we are aware. This proposed study promises to shed light on how POCT for influenza impacts on primary care workflows and the utility of data from POCT for sentinel influenza surveillance. This is crucial as new antivirals for influenza promise to improve time to resolution of symptoms and reduce complications for patients but will likely be restricted to patients with microbiologically confirmed diagnosis. Clinical Trial: Not applicable