FARR Institute commissions FARSITE roll-out across north
Profiling tool allows Clinical Research Networks to co-ordinate clinical trial feasibility and recruitment quickly and easily
NorthWest EHealth has won a tender to provide FARSITE to three areas across the North of England; Greater Manchester, North West Coast, and North East and North Cumbria.
Funding for this work has been made available to two of the region's Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) and to Liverpool Health Partners.
Altogether this will cover a population of approximately nine million patients, with the potential to deliver a step-change in research capacity.
FARSITE is a powerful profiling tool that allows Clinical Research Networks (CRNs) to co-ordinate clinical trial feasibility and recruitment quickly and easily. More studies can be run, identifying better and safer treatment for patients, and streamlining the way the health service delivers care.
The FARR Institute saw an opportunity for northern England to strike ahead in research, using this ground-breaking information system to generate new knowledge and investment to the health economy.
I recognise a giant leap forward in our ability to run feasibility and recruitment searches and to improve patient outcomes
FARSITE allows the CRNs to make more patients aware of research that is of particular relevance to them – underpinning the principles of the NHS Constitution. The system is hosted within the NHS and GPs remain the custodian of their patients’ records.
In each AHSN area, 50 practices will sign up to FARSITE. The system has been extremely well-received by GPs, who are assured by the standards in place to preserve patient confidentiality; NWEH is accredited with ISO 9001 and 27001.
Dr Julia Reynolds, former senior manager for Cumbria and Lancashire CRN, said: “Using FARSITE means that primary care can be pro-active in engaging with research. It has the potential to attract industry and others to the region.”
Raj Jain, former managing director of Greater Manchester AHSN, added: “I recognise a giant leap forward in our ability to run feasibility and recruitment searches and to improve patient outcomes. FARSITE is a tremendous asset to attract inward investment into Greater Manchester, both for clinical trials and companies wishing to develop new medicines and med tech products. We have already had considerable interest and success – FARSITE has significantly contributed to that.”
And Professor Iain Buchan, director of HeRC, said: “Mobilising data for scientific discovery and improving health services for patients and the public is our mission. Farr is investing in FARSITE because it is the most user-friendly software available for searching complex NHS data to find patients who are eligible to be invited into clinical studies – something that our patient and public involvement groups are asking for.
“In addition, the FARSITE software can be extended with new features that come out of Farr research – for example in analysing flows of patients along care pathways to help improve services.”
The new FARSITE members are expected to start conducting searches from this month.
