This is a glossary of terms used by people working in the drugs field, drawn up by the Scottish Drugs Forum. It covers some of the specialised and contentious language used in the field. We have included it in the resource library as it may be helpful to those who work in health services who are less familiar with some of the language and terms used by colleagues and partners in drug services.
Lessons learnt from HepCATT for ODNs and GP practices
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This summary notes some of the lessons learnt from the HepCATT (Hepatitis C Assessment Through to Treatment)
Randomised Controlled Trial.
HepCATT tested an Hepatitis C virus (HCV) case-finding intervention in primary care. The intervention
involved:
• Algorithm integrated into electronic patient records systems to identify high risk patients
• Automatic mail-merge to create letters to invite high risk patients for testing
• Pop-ups alerts in patient records to encourage opportunistic testing
• Practice Staff HCV educational training
• Patient posters and leaflets explaining HCV risk factors and treatment options
The intervention aimed to increase case-finding, testing and treatment for HCV. The study found the intervention to be effective, acceptable to staff and highly cost-effective for the NHS.
The lessons learnt relate to training, screening lists, managing resources and opportunistic testing and should be useful to GP practices and ODNs.
