Context and gap: In Ireland, the introduction of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in November 2019 marked a significant advancement in HIV prevention. Despite its potential, PrEP rollout has encountered challenges, including limited accessibility and increased demand, revealing the need for innovative solutions to enhance service delivery across primary, community, and acute settings.
Specific aims:
To co-design an integrated hybrid PrEP model that builds capacity in a way that is efficient, value for money, effective and acceptable.
To demonstrate how this hybrid model can be transferred to other healthcare services to inform future digital health care delivery policy in Ireland.
Approach: The project proposes an innovative approach by integrating digital services with traditional in-person care, leveraging the collaboration with SH:24, a leader in online sexual health services. This integrated digital-hybrid model aims to overcome identified gaps: enhancing accessibility and capacity, improving efficiency, and adapting to the changing healthcare landscape.
Methods: The project employs a health systems approach to co-develop the hybrid model, engaging with users, governance, resource allocation, workforce planning, and leadership. It will proceed through three phases: co-development and implementation of the digital-hybrid model, iterative process evaluation to refine the model and measure outcomes, and generalisation of learnings to support wider application in digital healthcare policy. Methods include stakeholder engagement, development of adaptive and flexible evaluation frameworks, pilot data collection through routinely collected data, surveys and interviews, and policy analysis.
Impact: The anticipated impact of this project includes informing policy formulation to improve productivity and ensure value for money in healthcare delivery. By demonstrating how structured and designed digital integration can enhance healthcare efficiency, including staff productivity and retention, the project aims to support the Department of Health’s interest in maximising outcomes from healthcare investments and contributing to international best practices.