Participant (practice) information

Research project title: ePREVENT-360 - Empowering Patients. Enhancing PREVENTion.

Feasibility of a consumer facing digital intervention to enhance chronic disease prevention in primary care.

This is an invitation for you to take part in this PhD project. This study has been funded through a grant from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Foundation and the HCF Research Foundation and will be conducted by University of Wollongong researchers. (UOW Human Research Ethics Committee approval #2024-227)

Purpose of this study.

This project's overall aim is to explore innovative ways to improve population health by preventing chronic conditions. The ePREVENT-360 study aims to better understand whether patients are interested in using a digital chronic disease prevention intervention (THRIVE).The researchers will examine consumer and clinician engagement with the THRIVE intervention and identify factors that influence this engagement. Other key aims of this study are to assess the feasibility and acceptability of automation of some key aspects of preventive care to augment the work of GPs and practice nurses to optimise health outcomes for their patients and to gain insights into clinician perspectives on what works and what does not work well.

How your clinic can take part

After reading this information sheet, if you are interested in taking part, please register your interest through clicking on the ‘I’d like to register interest’ link below and our researchers will be in contact.

They will discuss the project at a time that is convenient to you and will also provide a ‘Practice Consent Form’.

What the study involves

The study will run over 6 months. Participation of practices is voluntary. The researchers understand the time constraints of a busy general practice and thus have designed this project to require little time from clinic staff. Agreeing to become a research partner on this project means that your patients and staff will have 6 months access to the THRIVE platform.

For patients:

Individuals aged 30-65 will be invited to participate through a digital link provided by scanning a QR code from a brochure or poster in the waiting room. The researchers are seeking at least 43 patients at each clinic.

There are four parts to the study:

A brief online survey about barriers and promoters to using digital health (10-15 minutes).

Access the digital THRIVE 'Health Check’ (20-30 minutes). This analyses the risk of chronic conditions and provides tailored health recommendations relevant to the level of risk for 21 chronic conditions. Recommendations are based on the latest Australian guidelines. This is followed by brief digital health ‘check-ins’ at 3 and 6 months (5-10 minutes).

Feedback survey at 6 months (7-10 minutes).

A few people will also be asked to take part in an interview with a researcher (20-30 minutes). Patient participants are free to accept or decline this invitation.

For clinicians:

There are two parts:

Feedback survey: Researchers will provide an information sheet with a QR code at the end of the 6-month period to be displayed in the clinic tearoom. This code will link to a brief anonymous survey about clinicians’ perspectives of the THRIVE program (5-10 minutes).

Interviews: A small group of GPs and nurses will be asked to take part in a brief interview before and after patients have access to the THRIVE program (20-30 minutes). Clinicians are free to accept or decline this invitation.

For the clinic administration and management team:

If you agree to participate, the researchers would like to meet with your team to discuss the project. All the researchers have worked in general practice and understand how busy things can get. Aside from placing posters and some brochures about the project in your waiting room and for clinicians in your tea-room, to encourage participation, this project should not impact the workload of your administration team.

We do not require access to your practice software to extract or input any data.

Are there any risks?

This study does not pose any significant risk of discomfort to consumer or to clinician participants.

If individual patients feel anxious or have concerns because of any risks identified in the ‘Health Check’, resources and helplines will be provided to support them. Reassurance is given throughout the THRIVE program that most risks are modifiable through lifestyle change, accessing health screening and/or accessing care with their GP or nurse.

What are the potential benefits to general practice clinics?

The researchers look forward to working with general practice clinic teams interested in being at the forefront of healthcare innovation, focusing on streamlining preventive care and empowering patients to improve their health outcomes. The THRIVE intervention is designed to provide benefits to both patients and clinicians. Patients access the online ‘Health check,’ their own health dashboard, a health action plan and concise summary to share with their GP or nurse. The THRIVE clinical summary provides chronic disease risk calculations, screening and lifestyle change recommendations based on best practice guidelines, to support efficient preventive care delivery.

GPs and nurses who participate in the interviews will be provided with an $80 gift card as compensation for their time.

Patients who choose to participate in the project will be provided with a gift card to a value between $30 and $80, depending on their level of engagement, as compensation for their time.

Data privacy and security

We take privacy seriously. If your clinic decides to participate, your patients’ and clinicians’ data will be stored securely. We will remove personal information from the data and store identifiable data separate from the other research data. No personal data will be shared with anyone outside the research team.

The data generated from this project will be published in a PhD thesis, scientific journal papers and presented at conferences. No one will be identified in these publications or any communications arising from this study.

The research data will only be used for this project and not for any future projects. All data will be stored in secure University of Wollongong databases for five years as required by law.

Audio recording of interviews

Clinicians and patients who volunteer to take part, interviews will be audio-recorded. This is to allow an accurate transcription of the conversation to be made. This transcript will then have all personal information removed to ensure that individuals cannot be identified from the data.

Freedom of consent

Participation is voluntary. Joining the study is completely up to invited consumers and clinicians. Participants can leave the study at any time without any need to explain by contacting the chief investigation Dr Gillian Singleton.

Conflict of interest

To ensure transparency, we disclose that Dr Gillian Singleton was involved in the development of the THRIVE program. Dr Singleton is a GP and PhD student responsible for this research under the supervision of University of Wollongong senior researchers not affiliated with THRIVE. All of the co-investigators on this study are aware of this conflict of interest.

The research team has robust strategies in place to ensure that this conflict of interest does not impact the conduct or results of this study including:

All data collection and analysis will be overseen by an independent researcher.

The supervisors will oversee and critically analyse the study data.

This conflict will be declared in all publications.

Ethics review and complaints

This study has been reviewed and approved by the Health and Medical Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Wollongong (Reference number: 2024-227).

If you have any concerns or complaints regarding the way this research has been conducted, you can contact the University of Wollongong Ethics Officer, uow-humanethics@uow.edu.au, +61 2 4239 2191.

Study contact

Please contact Dr Gillian Singleton at gms993@uowmail.edu.au or on 0419 520 537 if you have any questions about this study