Early Successes in an Open Access, Provincially Funded Hepatitis C Treatment Program in Prince Edward Island

Annals of Hepatology
Jordan W FranchevilleDaniel Smyth

Abstract

The availability of curative hepatitis C therapies has created an opportunity to improve treatment delivery and access. Local providers, government, industry, and community groups in Prince Edward Island developed an innovative province-wide care model. Our goal was to describe the first year of program implementation. Using a communitybased prospective observational study design, all chronic hepatitis C referrals received from April 2015 to April 2016 were recorded in a database. Primary analysis assessed the time from referral to assessment/treatment, as well as the number of referrals, assessments, and treatment initiations. Secondary objectives included: (1) treatment effectiveness using intention-to-treat analysis; and (2) patient treatment experience assessed using demographics, adverse events, and medication adherence. During the study period 242 referrals were received, 123 patients were seen for intake assessments, and 93 initiated direct-acting antiviral therapy based on medical need. This is compared to 4 treatment initiations in the previous 2 years. The median time from assessment to treatment initiation was 3 weeks. Eighty-two of 84 (97.6%, 95% CI 91.7 - 99.7%) patients for whom outcome data were available achieve...Continue Reading

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