6th UK and Ireland Implementation Science Research Conference 2023
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PRESENter
Chor Yau Ooi
presenter biography
Chor Yau Ooi is a Family Medicine Specialist and a medical lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in implementation science at University of Malaya, Malaysia. His work is focused on implementing a web-based application to increase the uptake of health screening in men.
background
Men’s use of health screening remains low globally [1]. This was more evident during the Covid-19 pandemic as most non-urgent services in the clinic were halted, including health screening. Technology can be used to overcome barriers to screening by improving accessibility, motivating and reminding individuals to get screened. ScreenMen is a web-based application that was developed to increase the uptake of men’s health screening. This study was a process evaluation of the implementation of ScreenMen in a primary care setting.
Reference
1. Teo CH, Ling CJ, Ng CJ. Improving Health Screening Uptake in Men: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. American journal of preventive medicine. 2018;54(1):133-43.
MEthod
This study was conducted in a government health clinic using a mixed-method explanatory sequential design driven by the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework [2]. We used a tailored intervention including: mandate change, provide education and training, identify and prepare champions, use of information and communication technology, and audit and provide feedback. Participants were staff and patients. We used Google Analytics to monitor patient uptake of ScreenMen for 5 months and conducted staff interviews to understand the implementation process. We used template analysis based on the RE-AIM framework [3].
References
2. Glasgow RE, Vogt TM, Boles SM. Evaluating the public health impact of health promotion interventions: the RE-AIM framework. Am J Public Health. 1999;89(9):1322-7.
3. QualRIS. Qualitative Methods in Implementation Science 2019 [Available from: https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/IS/docs/NCI-DCCPS-ImplementationScience-WhitePaper.pdf.]
results
A total of 75 patients accessed the app. Access was higher as implementation started but subsequently dropped, and increased again towards the end of the period. The majority (51%) of patients accessed the app through QR codes. In qualitative analysis we found that access was lower than expected because of decreased patients in the clinic during the pandemic. The later increase in access was related to champion activity. Bunting promotes access due to its size and strategic placement. Staff found that mandated change was not useful as an implementation strategy.
Conclusion
Making patients access the app in the clinic and using bunting were reported to be effective in implementing ScreenMen while mandate change was found to be least helpful.