Background: The clinical and financial consequences associated with a penicillin-allergy label are increasingly evident and have garnered support from international organizations to prioritize penicillin-allergy delabelling programmes. Most settings lack access to resources including drug allergy specialists and rely on general practitioners (GPs) and pharmacists.
Objectives: The aim of this scoping review was to identify and describe freely available penicillin-allergy delabelling materials to guide clinicians practising in resource-limited settings with initiative application.
Methods: This scoping review searched two grey literature databases, six targeted websites and consulted content experts to identify freely available materials in the English language that provided evidence-based and actionable penicillin-allergy delabelling strategies. Study investigators ranked and voted on which screened resources should be included in the final review. Characteristics of resources were evaluated and compared.
Results: Out of 1191 total citations, 6 open-access resources were included. Penicillin-allergy toolkits featuring various delabelling strategies were identified in four resources. The toolkits supported a broad range of downloadable and adaptable materials, predominantly targeted towards GPs. Patient educational materials were also provided. Another resource highlighted a point-of-care penicillin-allergy risk assessment calculator via a free mobile app that quickly and accurately identified low-risk penicillin-allergic patients. The final resource, a supplemental instructional video, presented impactful and standardized delabelling strategies that clinicians can adopt into daily practices.
Conclusions: Limited penicillin-allergy delabelling materials are available in the grey literature but existing resources provide broad and diverse opportunities. Additional support from health protection agencies is critical to augment ongoing delabelling efforts.
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.