THINK-HF v1.0

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Feasibility Trial of electronic Health record INtelligent tooling in primary care for quicKer diagnosis of Heart Failure (THINK-HF)

• IRAS ID

  332534

• Contact name

  Claire Lawson

• Contact email

  cl417@leicester.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Leicester

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 9 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  Background:
  In 2018, the government issued best practice guidelines on how best to diagnose and treat heart failure (HF), with the goal of helping patients live better and longer. However, there is evidence that many patients face long waits from when they first report symptoms to their GP, to when they get diagnosed and treated. Most of these patients are only diagnosed when they end up in hospital, and they don't do as well as those diagnosed earlier by their regular doctors. People with other illnesses, women, and those from less wealthy backgrounds often face longer waits.

  We want to an electronic 'clinical decision support (CDS) system to a patient's digital health file. The CDS system will give doctors alerts about patients who are at high risk of HF and suggest specific tests, so that patients could be diagnosed earlier. This can help them receive treatment earlier and live better and longer lives.

  Project aim:
  We want to create and try out an electronic CDS system to help primary care doctors detect HF earlier and make sure all patients get equal care.

  What we will do:
  Even though there's good evidence that an electronic CDS system can help manage long-term illnesses better, there are still too many unanswered questions to test our idea fully. Therefore, in this project we want to:
  1. Work with doctors and patients using questionnaires and a meeting to make an electronic CDS system for doctors' offices.
  2. Observe some general practice consultations to understand the experiences of clinicians and patients and how the CDS system might be used in routine care.
  3. Try this CDS system in four doctor's offices. We'll see if doctors use it and get thoughts from staff and patients. We also want to know if the reminder helps doctors decide which tests to do, for which patients, and when.

• REC name

  HSC REC A

• REC reference

  23/NI/0156

• Date of REC Opinion

  15 Nov 2023

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion