Poor access to surgical wound swabbing in the community often results in delayed or inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for surgical site infections. This delay can contribute to prolonged wound healing and poor antimicrobial stewardship. Patient self-swabbing at home could improve access to diagnostic testing, but its feasibility and acceptability remain unexplored.

TREASURE is a multicentre, mixed-methods feasibility study. A total of 40 patient participants and 10 staff stakeholders will be included. 40 adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery via median sternotomy will be recruited from Harefield Hospital (n=25) and the Royal Sussex County Hospital (n=15). Eligible participants will receive a coproduced self-swabbing set of instructions and kit at discharge and perform wound swabbing at home within 1–21 days, observed remotely by a researcher via Microsoft Teams. Swabs will be couriered to a central laboratory for bacterial culture with antimicrobial susceptibility testing for pathogens.

The primary feasibility outcome is the proportion of patients successfully completing self-swabbing at home to obtain usable culture swabs with samples received at the laboratory within 24 hours and deemed suitable for processing. Secondary safety and acceptability outcomes include usability of the kit and instructions; patient satisfaction; viability of samples for laboratory analysis; and recruitment and retention rates. A 30-day follow-up will capture wound complications, antibiotic prescribing and healthcare utilisation via patient questionnaires, case note review, general practitioner confirmation and patient interviews. 10 staff stakeholders will be interviewed to inform pathway development.

Quantitative data will be analysed descriptively, with proportions reported alongside 95% CIs. Qualitative data from patients will undergo thematic analysis, and stakeholder interviews will be coded using Normalisation Process Theory. An early health economic model will be developed to explore resource use, costs and proportions of appropriate and timely antibiotic use between current pathways and a proposed pathway, including self-swabbing.

West of Scotland Research Ethics Service has reviewed and approved the study (REC reference: 25/WS/0079). Findings will be disseminated through the study website, a webinar, peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, patient and public involvement-led activities and engagement with National Health Service (NHS) stakeholders.

NCT07200401, ISRCTN28466609.

Acknowledging equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in research is not only a moral imperative but also an important step in avoiding bias and ensuring generalisability of results. This protocol describes the development of STAndards for ReporTing EDI (START-EDI) in research, which will provide a set of minimum standards to help researchers improve their consistency, completeness and transparency in EDI reporting. We anticipate that these guidelines will benefit authors, reviewers, editors, funding organisations, healthcare providers, patients and the public.

To create START-EDI reporting guidelines, the following five stages are proposed: (i) establish a diverse, multidisciplinary Steering Committee that will lead and coordinate guideline development; (ii) a systematic review to identify the essential principles and methodological approaches for EDI to generate preliminary checklist items; (iii) conduct an international Delphi process to reach a consensus on the checklist items; (iv) finalise the reporting guidelines and create a separate explanation and elaboration document; and (v) broad dissemination and implementation of START-EDI guidelines. We will work with patient and public involvement representatives and under-served groups in research throughout the project stages.

The study has received ethical approval from the Imperial College London Research Ethics Committee (study ID: 7592283). The reporting guidelines will be published in open access peer-reviewed publications and presented in international conferences, and disseminated through community networks and forums.

The project is pre-registered within the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/8udbq/) and the Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research Network.