Strengths and weaknesses
SUI
RECRUITMENT
In addition to the HCST’s diagnostic power, many of the personal and financial issues faced by the existing measurements are addressed. HCST provides the convenience of both a pad-free test and being performed at home. The HCST therefore avoids hospital visits, the use of extra healthcare resources, and eliminates healthcare professional bias in reporting the outcome of interventions. These strengths could potentially translate to improved recruitment and retention in SUI trials. Despite most COVID restrictions being lifted, reduced footfall in hospitals is still a valued attribute seen with the HCST [The method of standardisation, ‘comfortably full bladder’, for the HCST in the SIMS RCT [Conventionally, a new assessment tool being introduced has its diagnostic accuracy compared to the ‘standard’, or the most reliable available method. It could be argued this would be urodynamic testing in this scenario. A key limitation of the HCST in this evaluation was the low PPV, the reasons of which have been discussed earlier.