Automated STI/HIV risk assessments: Testing an online clinical algorithm in Ottawa, Canada

O’Byrne, Patrick; Musten, Alexandra; Orser, Lauren; Buckingham, Scott

doi:10.1177/09564624211031322

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…GetaKit was an online risk assessment tool (O'Byrne et al., 2021), which collected information about participants’ potential exposure to infectious diseases and their risk of transmission were such an exposure to have occurred. To access the system, persons created accounts using a name, address, date of birth, and email or phone number, and then completed a risk self‐assessment for HIV or COVID.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Ontario, Canada, another change was the launch of GetaKit.ca, through which persons could complete an online risk assessment to determine their need for HIV testing (O'Byrne et al., 2021; O'Byrne et al., 2021). Those who qualified through the GetaKit risk algorithm (O'Byrne et al., 2021) were offered a free HIV self‐test and were provided support based on their reported risk practices and results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Delivering COVID self‐tests through GetaKit.ca: Creating testing access during a pandemic

O’Byrne¹,

Orser²,

Musten³

et al. 2023

Public Health Nursing

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives: To determine the real-world outcomes associated with using the GetaKit.ca website to distribute COVID self-tests to persons with risk factors, with a focus on facilitating testing for persons who are Black, Indigenous, or of Colour (BIPOC). Methods:GetaKit was an open cohort observational study to distribute free self-tests, starting with HIV self-testings and then adding the Lucira Check-It® COVID self-test.Participants would register on our website and complete a risk assessment, which would calculate their need for each type of testing.Results: Focusing on the COVID self-tests, from September to December 2021 (with targeted outreach in winter 2022), we distributed 6474 COVID self-tests to 3653 persons through 4161 unique orders, of which 47% came from BIPOC participants.Compared to white participants, BIPOC participants were more likely to have been a contact of COVID but less likely to be vaccinated. As well, 69% of results were reported back via the GetaKit.ca website, with 5.3% of these being positive. The positivity rate for our 3653 participants was 9.6%. Conclusions:Delivering COVID self-tests via our website provided tests to BIPOC communities and yielded positivity rates that matched local COVID testing centres. This highlights the utility of such systems for delivering testing during future pandemics.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delivering COVID self‐tests through GetaKit.ca: Creating testing access during a pandemic

O’Byrne¹,

Orser²,

Musten³

et al. 2023

Public Health Nursing

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Preceding that, with special access program approval, GetaKit launched Canada's first at-home HIV self-testing project in Ontario in July 2020 (O'Byrne et al, 2021a). As an automated version of the United States Centers of Disease Control (CDC, 2021) STI risk assessment, the GetaKit system imputes participants' need for HIV testing to ensure self-tests are distributed to persons with risk factors for HIV acquisition (O'Byrne et al, 2021b). Since its inception, over 6000 persons have obtained HIV self-tests from GetaKit, of whom 27% denied any form of prior HIV testing and 81% were members of the HIV priority populations.…”

Section: Résumémentioning

confidence: 99%

HIV self-testing: what GetaKit can tell us about Canada’s $8 million one-time investment

O’Byrne

Musten

2023

Can J Public Health

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

At the 16th International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada’s Federal Health Minister announced that the Government of Canada will invest $17 million to increase access to HIV testing, $8 million of which would be used to purchase and distribute HIV self-tests. While HIV testing, and subsequent diagnoses, is a critical first step to achieving the updated UNAIDS goals of 95-95-95, testing on its own does not guarantee linkage to treatment or prevention services. In other words, it does not alone guarantee progress toward the 95-95-95 goals. GetaKit, Canada’s first HIV self-test mail-out project, has demonstrated that a preliminary risk-assessment consistent with US CDC and PHAC screening guidelines ensures targeted uptake among communities most affected by HIV, thus minimizing the risk of false positive results and poor positive predictive values. Furthermore, HIV self-testing must link not only individuals with positive results to treatment, but also persons with negative results to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) along with re-testing as required. However, both access to treatment and PrEP remain inconsistently available across Canada. Therefore, while this one-time investment of funding to increase HIV testing is encouraging, without clear instructions as to who should be prioritized for testing and definitive next steps to ensure that individuals are successfully linked to care, Canada risks wasting resources, further exacerbating pre-existing inequities.

show abstract

“…While we have published on the implementation, algorithm and pilot uptake of GetaKit (see O’Byrne et al, 2021a , b , c ), in this paper we report on the full project dataset regarding first-time testers, focusing on gbMSM, as the group most affected by HIV in Ontario. Our focus here is the comparison of first-time testers and those who reported previous HIV testing, specifically highlighting the similarities and differences in these groups for gbMSM participants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First-time testers in the GetaKit study: conceptualizing new paths to care for gbMSM

O’Byrne

McCready

Tigert

et al. 2023

Health Promotion International

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary When analyzing the data for Ontario, Canada, HIV rates continue to be highest among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM). Since HIV diagnosis is a key component of HIV care, self-testing has provided options for allowing this population to access care, resulting in a significant number of first-time testers. Between 1 April 2021 and 31 January 2022, 882 gbMSM participants ordered an HIV self-test through GetaKit. Of these, 270 participants reported that they had never undergone HIV testing previously. Our data showed that first-time testers were generally younger, members of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) communities and they reported more invalid test results than those who had tested previously. This suggests that HIV self-testing may be a more successful and appealing component of the HIV prevention armamentarium for this population, but one that is not without its shortcomings as an entry to care.

show abstract

Automated STI/HIV risk assessments: Testing an online clinical algorithm in Ottawa, Canada

Cited by 10 publications

References 30 publications

Delivering COVID self‐tests through GetaKit.ca: Creating testing access during a pandemic

Delivering COVID self‐tests through GetaKit.ca: Creating testing access during a pandemic

HIV self-testing: what GetaKit can tell us about Canada’s $8 million one-time investment

First-time testers in the GetaKit study: conceptualizing new paths to care for gbMSM

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About