Clinical effectiveness and analytical quality of a national point-of-care testing network for sexually transmitted infections integrated into rural and remote primary care clinics in Australia, 2016–2022: an observational program evaluation

To address inequitable diagnostic access and improve time-to-treatment for First Nations peoples, molecular point-of-care (POC) testing for chlamydia, gonorrhoea and trichomonas was integrated into 49 primary care clinics across Australia. We conducted an observational evaluation to determine clinic...

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Published in:The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific 2024-07, Vol.48, p.101110, Article 101110
Main Authors: Causer, Louise M., Ward, James, Smith, Kirsty, Saha, Amit, Andrewartha, Kelly, Wand, Handan, Hengel, Belinda, Badman, Steven G., Tangey, Annie, Matthews, Susan, Mak, Donna, Gunathilake, Manoji, Moore, Elizabeth, Speers, David, Persing, David, Anderson, David, Whiley, David, Maher, Lisa, Regan, David, Donovan, Basil, Fairley, Christopher, Kaldor, John, Shephard, Mark, Guy, Rebecca
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chlamydia
Clinical effectiveness
Gonorrhoea
Implementation
POC testing
Scaling up
Sexually transmitted infections
Trichomoniasis
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Summary:To address inequitable diagnostic access and improve time-to-treatment for First Nations peoples, molecular point-of-care (POC) testing for chlamydia, gonorrhoea and trichomonas was integrated into 49 primary care clinics across Australia. We conducted an observational evaluation to determine clinical effectiveness and analytical quality of POC testing delivered through this national program. We evaluated (i) implementation by measuring trends in mean monthly POC testing; ii) clinical effectiveness by comparing proportions of positive patients treated by historical control/intervention period and by test type, and calculated infectious days averted; (iii) analytical quality by calculating result concordance by test type, and proportion of unsuccessful POC tests. Between 2016 and 2022, 46,153 POC tests were performed; an increasing mean monthly testing trend was observed in the first four years (p 
ISSN:2666-6065
2666-6065
DOI:10.1016/j.lanwpc.2024.101110