An Evaluation of Digital Partner Notification Tool Engagement and Impact for Patients Diagnosed With Gonorrhea and Syphilis

Abstract

Background: Partner Notification (PN) is a key public health service to alert the partners of patients diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection and then support these individuals to test. Partner Notification is a challenge to deliver because of the personal nature of this communication and the time it requires to deliver effectively. Digital tools have been developed to support patients to inform their partners; unfortunately, it has not been possible to measure engagement with-and the impact of-these solutions. A digital PN tool (dPNt) was developed for use by the health care provider to (1) deliver anonymous PN, (2) support the partner to locate and test at an appropriate local service, and (3) track real-time outcome metrics. To assess the usefulness of this tool we analyzed dPNt adoption and performance in the delivery of PN services.

Method: A dPNt engagement for 5715 patients diagnosed by 23 health care providers with either gonorrhea or syphilis in 2019 was analyzed to determine what factors were associated with the use of this tool. The PN performance and a sub analysis of the patients who used dPNt was compared with the adjusted aggregate PN performance reported by Public Health England.

Results: Overall, dPNt engagement was 21% and 27% for patients with gonorrhea and syphilis, respectively. Male gender patients with gonorrhea and younger patients with either diagnosis were more likely to engage with dPNt. Nonengagement with dPNt was associated with a significantly higher number of partners reported as already seen and tested at the time that PN was initiated. The overall number of partners seen and tested per index patient increased in the clinics using dPNt from 0.43 to 0.84 for gonorrhea and 0.71 to 0.94 for syphilis, relative to Public Health England baseline results. Half of all prospective partner testing verification was done automatically by dPNt and no interaction was demonstrated between dPNt and standard methods.

Conclusion: Digital PN tool engagement increased when more partners needed to be informed of their risk of infection. Future work is planned to improve the use of and engagement with dPNt to alert and test more partners or their risk and improve public health.