UKCRC R&D Advisory Group to Connecting for Health
The UKCRC Advisory Group’s aim was to gather
evidence to help prioritise the research agenda in the ongoing
development of the NHS Care Records Service (NHS CRS).
Remit and membership
The Group's remit was to promote
collaboration between the UKCRC and NHS Connecting for Health to
envisage how the NHS CRS can benefit research. The Advisory
Group established a programme of work which provided the evidence
to support this.
Membership of the Group was based on personal
expertise in the subject matter, and comprised senior individuals
drawn from academia, industry and healthcare.
Programme of work
To carry out the Advisory Group’s objectives,
four teams were commissioned to run simulation projects. These
simulations were conducted on behalf of the wider research
community and were carried out over a four-month period from
October 2006.
The teams were encouraged to work together to
identify generic issues early in the process as well as engaging
with their wider research communities to capture issues common to
many research applications of routine data.
The research applications chosen to test the
proposed NHS Care Records Service (including the Secondary Uses
Service) for its suitability to support research were:
- Observational epidemiology
- Clinical trials
- Surveillance (Pharmacovigilance)
- Prospective tracking of a known cohort
The research simulations identified and anticipated developments
needed within the NHS CRS to support their research applications. A
report of these simulations is available
to download.
Next Steps
To build on the work of the simulation teams,
the UKCRC and the Wellcome Trust held a Frontiers meeting in May
2007 on the use of electronic patient records for research and
health benefit.
This event provided the opportunity to learn
from international examples of best practice in using health
information to improve healthcare safety and delivery via
research. A
report and
video of the meeting are available.
A formal programme of work within NHS Connecting for Health is
now underway to take forward the recommendations of the UKCRC
Advisory Group's report. Its primary objective is to enable
research to achieve its full potential as a 'core' activity for
healthcare, alongside other uses of NHS data that lead to
improvements in the quality and safety of care.
Links
NHS Connecting for Health Research Capability
Programme
Report of the
UKCRC Simulations
Report of the Wellcome Trust Frontiers Meeting
Connecting for
Health - England
Informing
Healthcare - Wales
Emergency Care Summary - Scotland
Information Centre for Health and
Social Care
The HSJ Supplement –
Information for Improvement article
Academy of Medical Sciences: Personal data
for public good