Practices will be recruited and supported by the CRN, costs will be reimbursed and the trial team will provide support. The AF screening intervention will be delivered entirely centrally and remotely by the trial team – practices will only need to manage the screening results and consultations with patients diagnosed with AF.
Practices would need to perform the initial eligibility search and send invitations / reminders to all eligible patients. The trial team manages patient consent, and will then randomise participants to control or AF screening (2:1). Participants randomised to screening would be invited by the trial team to take part in the AF screening programme, the details of which are provided below.
Practices will also be requested to support some of the additional qualitative components listed below.
Practices that have completed the DaRe2THINK study and / or the AMALFI study will need to exclude patients consented to those studies from invitation to SAFER.
If you have any questions please get in touch with the trial team.
Practice activities:
- Site initiation visit to set the practice up, including training on AF screening
- PI (GP) online anticoagulation training (optional)
- Run a pre-prepared search for eligible patients
- Send an invitation / reminder pack to eligible patients
- Adding a note of consent to the patient record
- Receiving and processing patient screening results, and informing all patients of their screening result
- Arranging routine clinical GP consultations to discuss anticoagulation therapy for patients diagnosed with AF
- Facilitating a data extract at baseline and follow-up (annually) for an average of 5 years via the RCGP Research & Surveillance Centre
Additional activities in some practices:
- Facilitate researcher observation of GP consultations of SAFER trial patients with a positive or indeterminate screening result (by phone or face to face when safe to do so)
- Allow the research team to approach practice staff members for interview