CRIS highlighted as exemplar in PM speech
On Monday, the Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans for the Government's Life Sciences Strategy to transform healthcare research and patient treatment in theUK.
CRIS was developed for use within the
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) for Mental Health at King's and SLaM and allows researchers access to anonymised information extracted from SLaM's electronic patient records system. The system is designed to improve the quality of research data and produce faster, more focused results, from large and complex clinical, genomic, proteomic and neuroimaging data, in order to drastically improve prevention, treatment and understanding of mental health illness.
CRIS was developed with extensive patient/service user involvement and adheres to strict governance frameworks managed by service users. It has passed a robust ethics approval process acutely attentive to the use of patient data. The data is used in an entirely anonymised and data-secure format and all patients have the option to opt–out of their anonymised data being used.
Professor Simon Lovestone, Director of the BRC says: 'We are delighted that the work of SLaM, King's College London and the NIHR BRC for Mental Health has been so widely recognised, praised and supported by government and the NIHR. This is great recognition for all the tremendous work everyone involved has put in.
'What Monday's comments emphasise is that the work we are doing at King's, SLaM and the BRC is right at the heart of the most interesting area of research and its continued success is critical to all of us.'
Cameron's speech also announced a new collaboration to be set up between London universities and NHS partnerships. King's Health Partners are part of a Concordat of Academic Health Sciences Centres (AHSCs) committed to working together with the NHS to deliver world class research, education and patient care. As a priority, the new collaboration will explore the potential to develop an information system that will build on anonymised NHS records to enable large groups of patients to be engaged in world-class clinical research on disease-specific and personalised treatments.
Professor Robert Lechler, Executive Director of King's Health Partners and Vice-Principal of King's College London says: 'Medical discoveries and advances in technology are taking place, not only within biomedical companies, but in our universities, especially when they work so closely with NHS hospitals, as part of an Academic Health Sciences Centre such as King's Health Partners. It is crucial that these breakthroughs have an accelerated journey so that patients in London and beyond benefit from novel treatments at the earliest possible opportunity.'
For more information, please contact Seil Collins, Press Officer at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, email: seil.collins@kcl.ac.uk or tel: 0207 848 5377