Developing a smartphone App for HIV care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
APPlying e-technologies to improve quality and cost effectiveness in routine HIV care
IRAS ID
136668
Contact name
Martin Fisher
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Brighton and Sussex Univeristy Trust NHS
Research summary
This study aims to evaluate the use of a mobile phone application (App) in routine HIV care.
For the last five years we have successfully used an email service to reduce the number of appointments that stable HIV positive patients in our service need to attend. Instead of seeing their doctor three times a year, stable patients have had the option to see their doctor once a year with interim blood results emailed to them and medication delivered by a home delivery company. This service is well liked by patients. We currently have 674 patients registered with the email service (30% of our total cohort) which frees up approximately 1000 face-to-face appointments a year.
We are currently developing a web application that will be able to send results by email or to an individual’s smart phone. We will also be able to send information about clinic appointments and antiretroviral medication.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the introduction of the mobile phone applications – looking at functional health, patient experience, clinical outcomes and cost. This will be in individuals with stable HIV as well as in those with more complex medical needs where the App complements rather than replaces appointments.
Working with the Social Informatics Research Unit at the University of Brighton we plan to pilot a sociotechnical evaluation of the App which will help us to understand the way in which the App is used by patients and in health care.
REC name
London - Brent Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/1498
Date of REC Opinion
23 Sep 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion