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Addressing Barriers to HIV Point-of-Care Testing in Community Pharmacies.

ABSTRACT: Significant numbers of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections are transmitted unknowingly, making efforts to increase HIV testing accessibility crucial. As trusted healthcare providers, pharmacists can increase accessibility of HIV screening and referral services. However, challenges with lack of private counseling and testing space, need for training and education, lack of adequate staffing, heavy workload, and uncertainty supporting patients with reactive results have been previously reported by community pharmacists as barriers to offering HIV screening. The objective of this study was to investigate pharmacists' opinions of strategies for addressing these barriers. A survey was developed to gather information regarding steps that could be taken to increase pharmacist comfort and interest offering HIV point-of-care testing (POCT) services. Thirty pharmacies were contacted and representatives from twenty-six responded. Pharmacists reported that they were likely or very likely to offer HIV POCT if they were given the following: a 2 h training session on administering and interpreting HIV POCT (73%); a 4 h education session on a variety of HIV education topics (73%); training about couples testing, post-test counseling, and de-escalation techniques (58%); or a semi-annual CE training (58%). Pharmacist respondents were likely or very likely (81%) to implement HIV POCT if there was a protocol in place so that patients with a reactive screening would out be referred for diagnostic testing and if there was a script provided as a template for post-test counseling (81%). The majority of pharmacists (69%) also preferred the appointment-based model rather than a walk-in or combination option and preferred (77%) having 20-30 min of dedicated time with the patient to provide adequate testing, education, and counseling. By using these strategies to improve comfort and likelihood implementing HIV POCT, pharmacists can increase access to HIV testing and decrease the spread of HIV.

SUBMITTER: McKeirnan K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8167761 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BACKGROUND:There is a need for acceptable and feasible HIV testing options to ensure people living with HIV know their status so they can access care. Pharmacist-provided HIV point-of-care testing (POCT) may overcome testing barriers, including privacy concerns, testing wait times, and improve accessibility. In the APPROACH study, we aimed to develop and assess an HIV POCT program in community pharmacies for future scale up and evaluation. This paper describes the program uptake, participant and pharmacist experiences, and implementation factors. METHODS:A pharmacist-provided HIV POCT program was offered in 4 pharmacies in two Canadian provinces. A mixed methods design incorporated self-report questionnaire data, participant telephone interviews, pharmacist focus groups, workload analysis, and situational analysis to assess the uptake, acceptability and feasibility of the HIV POCT program. RESULTS:Over the 6-month pilot, 123 HIV tests were performed. One new case of HIV was identified; this participant was linked with confirmatory testing and HIV care. Participants were predominantly male (76%), with a mean age of 35 years. This was the first HIV test for 27% participants, and 75% were at moderate to very high risk of undiagnosed HIV infection, by Denver HIV Risk Score. Questionnaires and telephone interviews showed participants were very satisfied with the program; 99% agreed HIV POCT should be routinely offered in pharmacies and 78% were willing to pay for the service. Participants felt the pharmacy was convenient, discreet, and that the pharmacist was supportive and provided education about how to reduce their future risk. Pharmacists felt prepared, confident, and expressed professional satisfaction with offering HIV POCT. Community and public health supports, clear linkage to care plans to refer participants with positive HIV POCT results, and provision of counselling tools were important enabling factors for the program. Pharmacist remuneration, integration with existing healthcare systems, and support for ongoing promotion of HIV POCT availability in pharmacies were identified as needs for future scale-up and sustainability. CONCLUSIONS:A successful model of pharmacy-based POCT, including linkage to care, was developed. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of this approach in finding new diagnoses and linking them with care. TRIAL REGISTRATION:Retrospectively registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03210701) on July 6, 2017.

Project description:ObjectivesTo summarise the literature regarding the use of point-of-care test (POCT) in pharmacies versus control/usual care.Design and settingSystematic review and random-effects meta-analysis in community pharmacy.Data sourcesMEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, ClinicalTrial.gov and Web of Science databases were searched.Eligibility criteriaArticles were included if they: involved a POCT conducted by a community pharmacist, member of pharmacy staff or local equivalent; measured a clinically relevant outcome for example, clinical parameter monitoring. No clinical condition or language limits were set.Patient and public involvementNo patient involvement.Data extraction and synthesisData were independently extracted by two members of the review team to capture changes in clinical care that resulted from the use of the POCTs. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed, using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool and Newcastle-Ottawa scale.ResultsThirteen of the 1584 articles found were included in the meta-analyses. Studies covered four therapeutic areas: targeted anti-malarial therapy (n=3 studies), glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) in diabetes (n=2 studies), lipid control (n=3 studies) and international normalised ratio (INR) control in patients taking warfarin (n=5 studies). POCT in pharmacies reduced the risk of receiving antimalarial treatment when not clinically indicated (risk ratio 0.34, 95%?CI 0.31 to 0.37). Lipid and HbA1c control appeared largely unaffected by pharmacy POCTs, and the impact on INR time-in-therapeutic-range was inconclusive.ConclusionsOnly 4 out of 13 included studies used a gold-standard randomised controlled trial (RCT) design, limiting our ability to conclusively determine the clinical utility of POCT conducted in pharmacies. Further RCTs are needed, particularly in areas such as upper respiratory tract infections, which have gathered momentum among service commissioners in recent years.Prospero registration numberCRD42017048578.

Project description:BackgroundInnovative health promotion strategies are needed to improve access to HIV testing among regional people in Australia, particularly for men who have sex with men (MSM). This project aimed to establish proof of concept for point-of-care-testing (POCT) via a mobile van clinic at community 'beat' locations. Surveys evaluated client satisfaction, characteristics and testing preferences among 'early adopters'. Sequential mixed-methods approach was used which included secondary qualitative analysis of field notes written by peer-testers (i.e., trained lay providers from the key population being targeted; to extend the contextualise the pilot evaluation), documenting barriers/facilitators and innovations, per action research and to guide recommendations for future health promotion initiatives.MethodsA POCT 'proof of concept' project (2, 3-hourly sessions/week; 20 weeks) was delivered in a regional town by peer-testers using a mobile clinic van, recruited by geosocial 'apps' targeting MSM. Clients completed surveys regarding demographics, and testing satisfaction, frequency and preferences. Peer-testers completed detailed field notes for each session including client characteristics and impressions, salient events, concerns and recommendations.ResultsThe program resulted in 34 online health promotion conversations with MSM and 34 POCT tests (19 HIV, 15 Syphilis; 18 unique client visits; 17 identified as MSM, with 1 heterosexual female. Rates of satisfaction among early adopters of POCT was high. Analysis of field notes revealed three major themes: 1) Practical challenges; 2) Barriers to engagement; and 3) Recruitment method/project promotion.ConclusionsAmongst early adopters satisfaction was high, with 47% of clients reported infrequent testing (over 12 months ago) or having 'never tested'. No tests were reactive. Challenges associated with this health promotion initiative and recommendations for future HIV testing promotion and programs were outlined.

Project description:BackgroundMobile HIV testing approaches are a key to reaching the global targets of halting the HIV epidemic by 2030. Importantly, the number of clients reached through mobile HIV testing approaches, need to remain high to maintain the cost-effectiveness of these approaches. Advances in rapid in-vitro tests such as INSTI® HIV-1/HIV-2 (INSTI) which uses flow-through technologies, offer opportunities to reduce the HIV testing time to about one minute. Using data from a routine mobile HTS programme which piloted the use of the INSTI point-of-care (POC) test, we sought to estimate the effect of using a faster test on client testing volumes and the number of people identified to be living with HIV, in comparison with standard of care HIV rapid tests.MethodsIn November 2019, one out of four mobile HTS teams operating in Ekurhuleni District (South Africa) was randomly selected to pilot the field use of INSTI-POC test as an HIV screening test (i.e., the intervention team). We compared the median number of clients tested for HIV and the number of HIV-positive clients by the intervention team with another mobile HTS team (matched on performance and area of operation) which used the standard of care (SOC) HIV screening test (i.e., SOC team).ResultsFrom 19 to 20 December 2019, the intervention team tested 7,403 clients, and the SOC team tested 2,426 clients. The intervention team tested a median of 442 (IQR: 288-522) clients/day; SOC team tested a median of 97 (IQR: 40-187) clients/day (p<0.0001). The intervention team tested about 180 more males/day compared to the SOC team, and the median number of adolescents and young adults tested/day by the intervention team were almost four times the number tested by the SOC team. The intervention team identified a higher number of HIV-positive clients compared to the SOC team (142 vs. 88), although the proportion of HIV-positive clients was lower in the intervention team due to the higher number of clients tested.ConclusionsThis pilot programme provides evidence of high performance and high reach, for men and young people through the use of faster HIV rapid tests, by trained lay counsellors in mobile HTS units.

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Addressing Barriers to HIV Point-of-Care Testing in Community Pharmacies.

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