CLEAN - CLinical EvaluAtion VIRUSEND™ [COVID-19]
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Critical evaluation of the implementation of VIRUSEND™ in clinical settings: reach, appropriateness, feasibility and acceptability
IRAS ID
288764
Contact name
Aaron Quyn
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
2020 has presented us with a global pandemic: COVID-19. COVID-19 has touched every aspect of our lives and continues to present unique challenges including to healthcare systems. We require effective infection control practices to protect healthcare workers, to reduce hospital acquired infections and to prevent spread to the general population and public.
A company called Pritchard Spray Technologies, working with the British Army, has developed a novel decontamination spray: VIRUSEND. VIRUSEND has been independently tested with 100% efficacy against COVID-19 to British and European standards, and is safe to use. We now want to find out whether it would be useful in the NHS. Although VIRUSEND is effective at killing COVID-19, it may not be useful in the NHS, because it may not fit with existing infection control processes, or staff may not find it easy to use, or for other reasons. It is also important to find out whether introducing VIRUSEND might have unintended consequences (such as changing how often people wash their hands).
We plan to carry out an evaluation of VIRUSEND in Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust (LTHT) using observation, interviews and questionnaires.
Healthcare workers will be recruited from 7 clinical environments to assess Virusend Spray over a 1-month time period. We would like to determine the clinical environments where VIRUSEND Spray offers most potential, barriers and enablers to implementation at organisational, ward and individual levels, and any unintended consequences.
REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/SW/0178
Date of REC Opinion
18 Nov 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion