Results from the PRUDENCE trial published in Lancet Primary Care

Earlier this month, the results of the PRUDENCE randomised controlled trial, part of the European VALUE-Dx project, were published in The Lancet Primary Care, marking an important advance in research on diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship.

Conducted across 13 countries and involving more than 2600 patients, the trial evaluated whether a point-of-care testing strategy for respiratory tract infections could support a safe reduction in antibiotic prescribing in real-world clinical practice.

The findings, published in the paper titled “Point-of-care testing strategy versus usual care to safely reduce antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections in primary care (PRUDENCE): a pragmatic, randomised controlled trial in 13 countries”, provide robust evidence on the role of rapid diagnostics in routine care, offering important insights into how they can be best integrated into clinical decision-making and stewardship strategies.

This achievement reflects the work of a large European collaborative network of investigators and clinicians. The Infectious Diseases team in Verona, led by Prof. Evelina Tacconelli, coordinated the European network of long-term care facilities across six sites in five countries, contributing to the enrolment of over 200 patients in a setting where conducting clinical trials is inherently complex due to patient frailty, organisational constraints, and the need to integrate research into routine care.

These results represent an important scientific contribution of the VALUE-Dx project and will help inform the future development and implementation of diagnostic strategies to improve patient care and address antimicrobial resistance.

Read the full paper here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanprc/article/PIIS3050-5143(25)00104-9/fulltext

Another paper regarding the qualitative process evaluation within PRUDENCE was published alongside, find this paper here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S3050514325001050

Prudence was funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 820755 and sponsored by the University of Oxford.