MicroGuide-2
Research type
Research Study
Full title
MicroGuide-2: A randomized controlled trial of the impact of MicroGuide™ computerized decision support modules on antimicrobial prescribing behaviours and clinical outcomes.
IRAS ID
295323
Contact name
Philip Scott
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
MERCK SHARP & DOHME (UK) LIMITED
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
The World Health Organisation says that "antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development" (WHO, 2020). The major cause of resistance is over-use of antibiotics, either because they are available without medical prescription or from over-prescribing. To address this problem, the policy of "antimicrobial stewardship" has been developed. This means "promoting and monitoring judicious use of antimicrobials to preserve their future effectiveness" (NICE, 2015). MicroGuide™ is an app to help hospital prescribers select the appropriate antimicrobial drug, by presenting hospital medicine guidelines in a user-friendly way. MicroGuide has the ability to create decision support modules (DSMs) for particular conditions, so that prescribers can answer a series of conditional questions about factors such as disease severity, allergies, resistance risks and pregnancy status to be guided to a recommended choice of drugs or in some cases to seek further microbiology specialist advice. This study is to evaluate whether implementing decision support modules within the MicroGuide application will improve the quality of antimicrobial prescribing and clinical outcomes. The study is sponsored and funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme (UK) Ltd. Up to 24 NHS Trusts and 30 NHS staff members will take part in this study.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/EM/0183
Date of REC Opinion
29 Jul 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion