A business-discovery platform that consolidates data from multiple sources into a single application for analysis is helping the National Institute for Health Research’s Clinical Research Network (NIHR CRN) to improve the performance of its supported studies.
Based on QlikView software from US-based business-intelligence specialists QlikTech, the Network’s Open Data Platform (ODP) enables it to harness existing study data so that more “educated” decisions can be made about placing and managing clinical research, based on key factors such as patient populations and clinical expertise, QlikTech noted.
As QlikView is available on mobile devices, the platform can also be used to promote more efficient clinical studies through NIHR CRN, the National Health Service’s research delivery arm for England.
Lots of data
With more than 630,000 people recruited into NIHR CRN portfolio studies in 2012-2013 alone, the Network has enormous amounts of data to deal with.
With the QlikView software, all study performance data can now be viewed within the ODP and analysed to ensure that research studies are meeting the relevant time and target criteria.
“After having to dedicate significant man hours getting insight out of a number of unwieldy databases, the Clinical Research Network now has the ability to get a full view of study metrics in one central, easily accessible location,” QlikTech said.
For example, the Open Data Platform will show where trained diabetes nurses are based, so the NIHR CRN can recommend the most appropriate location for running effective diabetes research in the NHS.
Maximum efficiency
“Like any other government department at the moment, the NHS is being tasked with running at maximum efficiency and the clinical research environment is no exception,” commented Richard Corbridge, chief information officer at the NIHR Clinical Research Network.
“We have a lot of study information: the number of people taking part, where patient populations are located, how long study set-up takes, etc, and it makes sense to channel this data for enhanced performance management,” Corbridge added.
