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  • 1 October 2022 to 31 October 2024
  • Project No: 600
  • Funding round: FR5

Blood tests are commonly used in general practice. Understanding blood tests is important for patients to help them to become partners in their care and manage their health. It is also important for patient safety; if abnormal tests are not followed up by this could lead to a delay in diagnosis.

Research has shown that patients do not always know what tests they have had done and why. Patients can find it difficult to get their test results and are not always told what their results mean, this can lead to anxiety and frustration for patients. It can lead to extra workload for GPs and primary care staff dealing with follow up phone calls from patients trying to find out what their results mean.

The NHS is planning to allow all patients to have access to their test results online, however these test results are not provided in a patient centred way, and this could exclude people who do not have access to the internet.

The aim of this systematic review is to find out what tools can be used to improve blood test communication in primary care. This includes how to best share information before testing, so that patients know what tests are being done and why. It also includes how best to share test results after testing.

This systematic review will give us an overview of what types of research exist and where there are gaps in the evidence. We will map out the current evidence, to help understand which types of tests have been studied, what methods have been used, and what the barriers are to making this work in practice. We expect that we will find some research looking at ‘decision aids’ to help patients understand their tests before testing, and some studies looking at ‘test result communication’ for example leaflets or online portals.

We will combine this evidence and use it to develop future studies, to try to improve the testing process from start to finish. Outcomes from this research will be important for patients, healthcare professionals and healthcare systems, potentially improving patient outcomes and reducing primary care workload.

Amount Awarded: £70,823

Projects by themes

We have grouped projects under the five SPCR themes in this document

Evidence synthesis working group

The collaboration will be conducting 18 high impact systematic reviews, under four workstreams.