Testing patients visiting a general practice suspected of having Influenza using an in-home test for influenza vs. PCR gold-standard test

Adults who present to a general practitioner with an influenza-like illness and are swabbed for surveillance purposes are given the opportunity the participate in this study if they have an Android or iOS smartphone or tablet. The patient will take the self-test home. The test consists of the QuickVue test for influenza A and B, and the flu@home app. The QuickVue test is a lateral flow test. It requires the patient to take a nasal swab and elute the swab into the test tube with the reagents provided, and put a test strip into the test tube. If positive, a pink line will appear on the test strip. All instructions for performing the test are guided by the app. The app will also ask the patient to answer questions about symptom history and risk factors, and also ask the patient to take a photo of the test strip once completed. This, combined with the QuickVue test, will give them an accurate result in approximately 20 minutes, via the app. This result will be compared to the gold-standard PCR result (from surveillance data), the results of which are provided to their GP within 24 hours of receipt of the sample at the lab. The app data are matched up to the PCR data via a unique barcode identification number. For the first 4 weeks of the study these data are continually analysed by the flu@home team and used to develop an optimal algorithm which incorporates the PCR data, photograph, and patient survey data to provide the patient with a highly accurate result.