Development and rapid rollout of The QUiPP App Toolkit for women who arrive in threatened preterm labour

TY - JOUR

T1 - Development and rapid rollout of The QUiPP App Toolkit for women who arrive in threatened preterm labour

AU - Carlisle, Naomi

AU - Watson, Helena

AU - Shennan, Andrew

N1 - Funding Information: Funding The development of the QUiPP App was funded by the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity (Registered Charity No. 1160316) and Tommy’s (1060508). The development of the QUiPP App Toolkit was funded by a Health Innovation Network South London ‘Innovation Award 2019/2020’ awarded to: Ms Naomi Carlisle, Dr Ellie Watson and Professor Andrew Shennan. Funding Information: Acknowledgements The development of the QUiPP App was funded by the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity (Registered Charity No. 1160316) and Tommy’s (1060508). The development of the QUiPP App toolkit was funded by a Health Innovation Network South London ‘Innovation Award 2019/2020’ awarded to: Ms Naomi Carlisle, Dr Ellie Watson and Professor Andrew Shennan. We would like to give acknowledgements to: Health Innovation Network South London, British Association of Perinatal Medicine, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, Ms Sara Coughlin (Preterm Birth Champion Midwife at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich), Ms Henretta Coker (Preterm Birth Champion Midwife, University Hospital Lewisham), Dr Maria Pinto Correia (Obstetrician at University Hospital Lewisham who kindly produced the Antenatal steroids leaflet for women), Ms Emma Wayman (Senior Research Midwife, Clinical Research Network South London), Maternity Voices Partnership Greenwich, Maternity Voices Partnership Lewisham, Ms Jenny Dorrington and the team at HOLOGIC, UK, West of England Academic Health Science Network. Publisher Copyright: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/5/6

Y1 - 2021/5/6

N2 - Background Often the first opportunity for clinicians to assess risk of preterm birth is when women present with threatened preterm labour symptoms (such as period-like pain, tightening's or back ache). However, threatened preterm labour symptoms are not a strong predictor of imminent birth. Clinicians are then faced with a complex clinical dilemma, the need to ameliorate the consequences of preterm birth requires consideration with the side-effects and costs. The QUiPP app is a validated app which can aid clinicians when they triage a women who is in threatened preterm labour. Aim Our aim was to produce a toolkit to promote a best practice pathway for women who arrive in threatened preterm labour. Methods We worked with two hospitals in South London. This included the aid of a toolkit midwife at each hospital. We also undertook stakeholder focus groups and worked with two Maternity Voice Partnership groups to ensure a diverse range of voices was heard in the toolkit development. While we aimed to produce the toolkit in September 2020, we rapidly rolled out and produced the first version of the toolkit in April 2020 due to COVID-19. As the QUiPP app can reduce admissions and hospital transfers, there was a need to enable all hospitals in England to have access to the toolkit as soon as possible. Results While the rapid rollout of The QUiPP App Toolkit due to COVID-19 was not planned, it has demonstrated that toolkits to improve clinical practice can be produced promptly. Through actively welcoming continued feedback meant the initial version of the toolkit could be continually and iteratively refined. The toolkit has been recommended nationally, with National Health Service England recommending the app and toolkit in their COVID-19 update to the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle and in the British Association of Perinatal Medicine Antenatal Optimisation Toolkit.

AB - Background Often the first opportunity for clinicians to assess risk of preterm birth is when women present with threatened preterm labour symptoms (such as period-like pain, tightening's or back ache). However, threatened preterm labour symptoms are not a strong predictor of imminent birth. Clinicians are then faced with a complex clinical dilemma, the need to ameliorate the consequences of preterm birth requires consideration with the side-effects and costs. The QUiPP app is a validated app which can aid clinicians when they triage a women who is in threatened preterm labour. Aim Our aim was to produce a toolkit to promote a best practice pathway for women who arrive in threatened preterm labour. Methods We worked with two hospitals in South London. This included the aid of a toolkit midwife at each hospital. We also undertook stakeholder focus groups and worked with two Maternity Voice Partnership groups to ensure a diverse range of voices was heard in the toolkit development. While we aimed to produce the toolkit in September 2020, we rapidly rolled out and produced the first version of the toolkit in April 2020 due to COVID-19. As the QUiPP app can reduce admissions and hospital transfers, there was a need to enable all hospitals in England to have access to the toolkit as soon as possible. Results While the rapid rollout of The QUiPP App Toolkit due to COVID-19 was not planned, it has demonstrated that toolkits to improve clinical practice can be produced promptly. Through actively welcoming continued feedback meant the initial version of the toolkit could be continually and iteratively refined. The toolkit has been recommended nationally, with National Health Service England recommending the app and toolkit in their COVID-19 update to the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle and in the British Association of Perinatal Medicine Antenatal Optimisation Toolkit.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105459126&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1136/bmjoq-2020-001272

DO - 10.1136/bmjoq-2020-001272

M3 - Article

SN - 2399-6641

VL - 10

JO - BMJ Open Quality

JF - BMJ Open Quality

IS - 2

M1 - e001272

ER -