Protocol for mixed-method study by LOng COvid Multidisciplinary consortium: Optimising Treatments and servIces acrOss the NHS (LOCOMOTION)
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Abstract
Introduction
Long COVID, a new condition whose origins and natural history are not yet fully established, currently affects 1.5 million people in the UK. Most do not have access to specialist long COVID services. We seek to optimise long COVID care both within and outside specialist clinics, including improving access, reducing inequalities, helping patients manage their symptoms effectively at home, and providing guidance and decision support for primary care. We aim to establish a ‘gold standard’ of care by systematically analysing symptom clusters and current practices, iteratively improving pathways and systems of care, and working to disseminate better practices.
Methods and analysis
This mixed-method, multi-site study is informed by the principles of applied health services research, quality improvement, co-design, and learning health systems. It was developed in close partnership with patients (whose stated priorities are prompt clinical assessment; evidence-based advice and treatment; and help with returning to work and other roles) and with front-line clinicians. Workstreams and tasks to optimise assessment, treatment and monitoring are based in three contrasting settings: [1] specialist management in 10 long COVID clinics across the UK, via a quality improvement collaborative, experience-based co-design and targeted efforts to reduce inequalities of access; [2] patient self-management at home, with technology-supported monitoring; and [3] generalist management in primary care, harnessing electronic record data to study population phenotypes and develop evidence-based decision support, referral pathways and prioritisation criteria across the primary-secondary care interface, along with analysis of costs. Study governance includes an active patient advisory group.
Ethics and dissemination
LOCOMOTION is sponsored by the University of Leeds and approved by Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee (ref: 21/YH/0276). Dissemination plans include academic and lay publications, and partnerships with national and regional policymakers to influence service specifications and targeted funding streams.
Study registration
ClinicalTrials.gov : NCT05057260 ; ISRCTN15022307 .
Article activity feed
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SciScore for 10.1101/2022.04.09.22273655: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:
Identifier Status Title NCT05057260 Not yet recruiting LOng COvid Multidisciplinary Consortium: … SciScore for 10.1101/2022.04.09.22273655: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:
Identifier Status Title NCT05057260 Not yet recruiting LOng COvid Multidisciplinary Consortium: Optimising Treatmen… ISRCTN15022307 NA NA Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
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