Together with GGD Amsterdam RADventure wins the Spider Award

The Chlamydia Screening Implementation Project of GGD Amsterdam wins the Spider Award.
The award of ICTzorg for the most innovative and efficient ICT project has been presented by president of the jury Ellen Maat at the ICTzorg  conference.

The project is an implementation study to examine whether national screening for chlamydia, a common venereal disease, is cost-effective and practicable. According to the jury of the Spider Award the project is an innovative, technically feasible project that automates the whole process for the screening for chlamydia . This allows large numbers of people to be screened with a minimal effort. This will prevent people from facing the negative consequences of the neglect of chlamydia like infertility in women. Also, thanks to this project numerous people can be addressed that would normally be left aside. The data generated by the project can be used for both prevention and research. Also, the project can easily be scaled up and expanded to other diseases.

ICT-systeem

The project group, together  with Radventure Santésys, developed  an ICT system that automates the entire screening process and the communication with the focus group.

Based upon a personal invitation, young people can apply for a test set on the website www.chlamydiatest.nl and see results there. Those of them that tested positive on the chlamydia test subsequently can download a referral for treatment and warn possible sex partners through email.

Feedback

21 percent on a total of 260,000 people that received a call, applied for the test. Assuming that people that didn't have sex or practiced safe sex did not respond, this response is fairly high. 4.2 percent of the people who took part in the test, was tested positive. So far 1733 infections have been detected and treated.

Jury's report

According to the jury of the Spider Award, the Chlamydia Screening Project is an innovative, technically feasible project, that automated the entire process for the screening for chlamydia. With minimal effort, a large number of people can be screened. This will prevent people from facing the negative consequences of neglect of chlamydia, including infertility in women. The jury also saw possibilities for the system in the future to be used for large scale screening for any other disease. Based on the data generated by the project is determined whether the Chlamydia Screening is rolled out nationwide.