DR4EP - Doctors Referral for Exercise Professionals, a digital intervention to promote doctors’ physical activity referral

A. Project Name 
DR4EP - Doctors Referral for Exercise Professionals, a digital intervention to promote doctors’ physical activity referral 
 
B. Submitted to the call/funding institution 
Erasmus +, Sport

C. Principal Investigator 
Hugo V Pereira (CIDEFES, COFAC) 
 
D. Timeline 
02/03/2024 (submitted)  
 
E. Partners 
VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands

VLAAMS INSTITUUT, Belgium

AJUNTAMENT D’ESPLUGUES, Spain

AZIENDA ULSS 2 MARCA TREVIGIANA, Italy

F. From CIDEFES 
Hugo Pereira 
António Palmeira
Marlene Silva
Catarina Silva 
Bruno Rosa

G. Summary  

Objectives: What do you want to achieve by implementing the project?

The main aim of this project is to develop a toolkit to promote and facilitate medical doctors' referral of their patients for physical activity. This toolkit will be evidence and theory-based, and the result of the co-development process involving major stakeholders. Moreover, the project aims to disseminate good practices that will enhance adherence to physical activity referral programs.

Implementation: What activities are you going to implement? 

1 - Review and analyse the impact of different components of physical activity referral programs on the adherence and behaviour change of the targeted population. 
2 - Consult and involve stakeholders (Medical Doctors, Exercise Professionals, and the Board of Management) in the development of the physical activity referral toolkit.

3 - Develop and pilot test the digital intervention’s toolkit to promote doctors’ physical activity referral.

4 - Test the efficacy and cost-efficacy of the DR4EP intervention across 4 countries (Portugal, Spain, Belgium, and Italy).

5 - Evaluate the implementation process of the DR4EP intervention alongside the effect study.

6 - Implementation and scalability of the DR4EP beyond the project.

Results: What project results and other outcomes do you expect your project to have? 
1 - A web-based intervention with a light-touch approach to promote doctors' physical activity referral 
2 - Social media pages & media appearances 
3 - 2 Multiplier Events and 1 Final Conference 
4 - Peer review papers: 
4.1 - Systematic review and meta-analysis of the impact of different components of physical activity referral programs on the adherence and behaviour change of the targeted population; 
4.2. - The DR4EP - Rationale, (co-)development, and pilot results of a digital intervention to promote doctors’ physical activity referral; 
4.3. - DR4EP Program - Multi-center RCT for doctors from a single unit (Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Italy); 
4.4 - Process evaluation of the DR4EP intervention.