ReportNeedles.ca: A Real-time Needle Collection Tool to Foster Community Health Partnerships.

Abstract

Technology-mediated interactions between the public, health care agencies, and researchers can facilitate community health partnerships. The use of such novel technologies can lead to innovations in public health research to address disparities and access issues. This article presents the web-based, real-time needle collection tool ReportNeedles.ca and describes its use in an ongoing community health partnership to deploy and evaluate pop-up interventions for blood-borne infection prevention and substance use harm reduction. Since April 2021, 34,350 needles have been collected from 466 public reports on the ReportNeedles.ca app in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan (population: approximately 215,000). This non-walkable city with pronounced needle prevalence may be representative of medium-sized cities in Canada, the United States, and elsewhere, where brick-and-mortar health care is predominantly accessible only to people of relative stability. This article discusses the tool's development, implementation, and evaluation plan alongside its potential for blood-borne infection prevention, harm reduction, and community-based participatory research.