By effectively harnessing this globally unparalleled and extensive health dataset, we have an opportunity to attract and engage global life sciences companies who are looking to deliver research in the UK. Such research not only provides patients across the nation with early access to cutting-edge treatments and technologies but also contributes substantially to the economic ecosystem, generating an estimated £165 million of additional income for the NHS in England.
During my time in the NIHR supporting the set-up and delivery of priority Covid-19 research, we saw the importance of enabling data driven trials to rapidly inform clinical care and healthcare policy, while maintaining public trust and ensuring data security and privacy. Since the pandemic, researchers have realised the benefit in using primary care EHRs to support the successful set up and delivery of studies. As the demand for real-world evidence and pragmatic clinical trials continues to rise, routinely collected primary care data holds immense promise for shaping the future of clinical research and healthcare delivery, as well as attracting life sciences investment to the NHS.
Access to rich, diverse patient demographics
With over 63 million patients registered at GP practices in England, the UK hosts vast amounts of comprehensive cradle-to-grave patient data and demographics that can hugely improve clinical decision-making and support both population health and personalised medicine research. A recent report from MedCity highlighted the importance of incorporating equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in clinical trials. Becoming a world leader in EDI is essential for the UK life sciences sector to set itself apart from its international competitors. With the UK’s diverse population and primary care datasets, there’s a unique chance for life sciences to invest in delivering diverse clinical trials that better represent end healthcare users and boost the statistical robustness of studies.
Using EMIS-X technology, we’re connecting life sciences companies and researchers to a comprehensive population overview across our EMIS estate to help better understand healthcare inequalities and identify optimal locations for research to engage potentially eligible patients. Embedding our solutions directly into clinical systems enables the primary care workforce in regions of diverse patient populations to approach participants from a point of trust, helping to boost confidence in participation in clinical research. This approach directly reaches those who stand to benefit, fostering greater diversity in study participants and supporting more inclusive research.
Longitudinal patient records
A longitudinal EHR tracks a patient’s health information across various care settings, providing insights into their journey over time. These records are essential not only for clinical care but also for resource planning, disease management and identifying potential participants for clinical research studies.
The purpose of primary care EHRs is to provide a single, comprehensive view of these encounters, but also host other important non-clinical, administrative, or novel and emerging information related to the patient’s health in order to provide care. The value of a longitudinal EHR for the life sciences not only offers real-world insight into events and patient outcomes during the delivery and follow-up of more complex clinical trials.
By embedding research tools into primary care systems, such as our Recruit solution, we can seamlessly match participants to clinical studies. This grants the UK a strategic edge, enabling us to inform the life sciences industry about the feasibility of identifying eligible participant cohorts necessary for successful study execution. Moreover, it accelerates recruitment rates through proactive engagement by GPs, thereby enhancing the setup and delivery of competitive commercial contract studies aimed at improving patient outcomes.
Real-world effectiveness studies
The UK’s experience delivering studies during Covid-19 demonstrated the NHS’s ability to connect health data swiftly and securely from various settings to support informed decision-making. Solutions like Recruit can provide this rapid, secure and efficient access to patients to participate in trials looking to evaluate medicines and devices in a real-world setting. Additionally, EMIS-X solutions such as Explorer offer secure insights into real-world evidence from patient records to follow consented trial participants over time. This approach offers valuable insights for translating research findings into practical healthcare applications, introducing new products to UK patients, and keeping the NHS at the forefront of modern treatment.
Translating complex study eligibility criteria
Traditional recruitment methods often rely on informal, simplistic assessments of participants, rather than precise eligibility criteria matching. Study eligibility criteria are a fundamental element of clinical trial design, defining who can and who should not participate in a trial. Commercial-sponsored interventional studies often have more complex eligibility criteria, due to regulations, the need to protect the investment, and increases the reliability and validity of the trial results.
GPs often face challenges in independently crafting EHR searches to identify eligible participants, a process prone to interpretation differences between practices. Recruit streamlines this process, eliminating inconsistency and resource strain, enhancing study planning and execution and making it easier than ever for GPs to facilitate research opportunities. This innovation can provide life science companies with the assurance of a high-quality selection of participants through evidence of existing patients matching protocol eligibility criteria in the EHR. This accelerates the processes of potential participant recruitment while adhering to data protection and governance rules.
Charting the future of clinical research in the UK
As highlighted in the 2023 Lord O’Shaughnessy review, there are still challenges in harnessing the wealth of information, resources, capability, and knowledge within the UK to facilitate clinical research, particularly commercially sponsored studies. The review, comprising 27 recommendations, aims to propel the NHS into a ‘world-leading platform’ for health and life sciences research while establishing global leadership in commercial clinical trials. In alignment with this vision, EMIS has collaborated with Newmarket to sponsor the whitepaper ‘Harnessing Primary Care Data for Clinical Research and Trial Recruitment.’ This whitepaper outlines six practical recommendations tailored to the UK landscape, aimed at advancing this ambitious agenda.
Unlocking the potential of primary care data for life sciences companies presents unparalleled opportunities to advance evidence-based medicine and improve patient outcomes. Through strategic collaboration and innovation, we can propel the NHS into a world-leading platform for health and life sciences research, paving the way for transformative advancements in healthcare innovation and collaboration.
