Heartburn Health Programme
The Heartburn Health Programme is a new registry bringing together volunteers with heartburn and acid reflux who are willing to share their national health data and be invited to future research. This programme will be the starting point of the new BEST4 Screening trial aimed at catching oesophageal adenocarcinoma cancer (OAC) early, a vital step in reducing its deadly impact.
Oesophageal cancer ranks 14th amongst common cancers and is the 7th leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the UK and is responsible for 3% of all new cancer diagnoses.
The BEST4 Screening trial is investigating whether a capsule sponge test could become a routine screening tool for people with a history of heartburn, who are more at risk. The hope is to improve outcomes and reduce the impact of OAC-associated mortality and morbidity.
As a practice, you can play a crucial role in advancing the Screening trial by participating in a short pilot. The pilot is designed to test how well the recruitment process works. The goals is to recruit participants using SMS text message. Eligible patients at participating GP practices will receive an SMS inviting them to complete an online enrolment survey. Participants will be informed that this is a test survey and that they have not been enrolled in any programme or trial, but they will be thanked for their contribution in making sure the research is successful.
We plan to run a brief one-week pilot in March 2024 at various practices across Kent and Medway ICB.
Why should I get my practice involved?
As healthcare professionals, we share a common mission to enhance healthcare and bring about positive change for others.
By registering your practice, you can contribute to the trial's progress and, hopefully, the future implementation of a a national screening programme that will reduce the impact of OAC. Supporting the pilot is as easy as following these steps:
Step 1: Register your practice.
Step 2: Have 5-minute set-up call (if required).
Step 3: We do the rest.
How is patient data governed and managed?
- The pilot will send eligible participants within your practice an SMS inviting them to complete the online enrolment survey for the Heartburn Health Programme.
- Aggregate results will be shared with The Cancer Research UK & King's College London Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (CPTU), who are responsible for coordinating the programme.
- iPlato will ensure data is transferred safely and is used in line with data sharing governance arrangements agreed upon with The Cancer Research UK & King’s College London Cancer Prevention Trials Unit (CPTU).
How will this impact my practice?
There will be no noticeable increase on practice workload. This is solely a pilot to test the SMS recruitment process and patients will not be registered on the programme or trial.
- iPLATO will facilitate the ongoing extraction of client demographic data via the practice clinical system phonebook, for which the data will be minimised as far as possible.
- All data is processed within the HSCN network.
- Only patients who have consented to receive SMS will be contacted.
- iPLATO Healthcare acts as a Data Processor for this service.