In general practice, is it possible for patients to participate in research before even entering the consultation room? The Automated Check-in Data Collection Study or the ‘AC DC Study’

Problem

Despite nine out of ten patient contacts with the NHS taking place in primary care settings, in 2017/18, participation of patients in primary care research studies contributed only 21.3% of total participants in NIHR Clinical Research Network supported research. Barriers to GPs delivering research include; consultation workload and a lack of efficient data collection methodologies. Choosing which data collection method to use when conducting research in the primary care setting is a predicament faced by many researchers.

Approach

When visiting a general practice for a pre-booked consultation, instead of patients speaking to the receptionist, it has now become commonplace for general practice waiting rooms to host an automated check-in screen. The basic automated check-in screen can be enhanced with additional software to allow the collection of routine data that is saved in the electronic patient record or to deliver patient messages. A research study using this automated process for the purposes of research, to examine patient acceptability for providing brief research information, whilst self-completing an automated check-in screen, prior to any general practice consultation, was designed. Extensive PPIE, clinician and user consultation was undertaken to develop and optimize the process. The design also included an assessment of the impact of check-in completion for general practice operationalisation.

Findings

A study response rate of 92% was achieved with brief research data obtained using the automated check-in facilities, from 9,274 participants registered at 9 general practices within North Staffordshire. Each practice recruited over a three-week period. There were no significant differences in participation rates or responses across practices, age groups or genders. In addition, the use of the check-in facilities to collect brief research data also had no reported impact on general practice operationalisation. Results data to the questions asked within the study will be presented.

Consequences

Technology-based methods for data collection, improve accuracy, reduce costs of data processing and can also maximise scalability. Following this research to look at acceptability of the methodology, follow-up studies have been designed to; identify carers and to case find for mental health issues. The restriction associated with this methodology however, is that only brief research data is obtained as limiting the number of questions was identified as a priority to minimise the check in process time and impact on usual GP check in processes. Whilst brief, data can be obtained to provide powerful answers to appropriately framed research questions which could otherwise be cost prohibitive and take a long time to conduct. Next steps for this new methodology, may include research into specific public health issues, service use opinion or identification of potential study participants for research studies either directly or by registering a patient’s willingness in their health record.