Understanding factors impacting the uptake, acceptability, and effectiveness of implementing a digital musculoskeletal self-management intervention into primary care: A Realist Evaluation
Funding:
BNSSG ICB Research Capability Funding.
What is the problem?
Musculoskeletal conditions such as low back pain and joint pain have a huge impact on patients and the health system as a whole and are the leading cause of disability in the UK. Pain and symptoms linked to these conditions can be helped by support strategies like understanding the expected timeline linked to recovery from an injury and doing exercises to help with the pain and symptoms.
There are now many digital health options (e.g., websites and phone Apps) to help people to manage these types of conditions, and we know that these have the potential to provide much needed support. What we don’t know is how they are being used, both by healthcare professionals, in how they are recommending such options to patients, and how patients might choose to access and use them. One App that is already being used within the health service is called getUBetter. This is an App for all types of musculoskeletal conditions and has been developed to support patients to recover from an injury or help them manage a longer-term condition. It is currently being used across 40% of Integrated Care Systems in England (including by 18,000 patients within the Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (as of June 2023), and patients are directed to it by a healthcare professional.
What is the aim of the research?
The aim of this research project is to find out more about which patients are using it, how acceptable it is to patients (do they like to use it), how healthcare professionals are using it, and if it might be having a positive impact on clinical outcomes like pain and quality of life for patients and saving the health system money by reducing the number of GP appointments.
How will this be achieved?
The project has three parts. Part 1 will look at published research to find out more about issues that might affect the ways in which digital interventions are used by healthcare professionals and patients. From the published literature we will develop some key ideas about how digital interventions might work for different people, and why.
Part 2 will then test these theories in practice, by looking at how the App is being used in several different GP sites across England, looking at patient outcomes, and comparing these with GP sites who are not currently using the App.
Part 3 will use the findings from parts 1 and 2 to co-develop support strategies to help healthcare professionals and patients to use this App, and other digital interventions, benefiting patients and the health system more broadly.
Who is leading the research?
Dr Alice Berry, Associate Professor in Rehabilitation, University of the West of England.
Further information
For more information or to get involved with this project, please contact bnssg.research@nhs.net.