Pilot Health Research Support Service (HRSS)
The pilot HRSS is the first stage of the Health Research Support Service to be developed. The pilot will work with a limited number of research studies and GP practices to show how the service can work and get feedback from people taking part in it.
The HRSS will help health researchers analyse a wide range of healthcare information, by linking the data together for them to use for research studies. Through these studies, researchers will be able to make treatments more effective and give patients a better quality of care.
Working with GP Practices
The pilot HRSS is currently working with two GP practices, one based in Liverpool and the other in Peterborough. All patients at these practices aged 18 and above have been sent a patient information pack explaining what the pilot HRSS is and how it affects them. The pack also includes the option for patients to opt-out of their data being used to contact them for possible participation in research studies associated with the pilot HRSS.
If you have received a patient information pack and would like more information that you cannot find on this page please view our Frequently Asked Questions or click here to contact us.
Research studies
The pilot HRSS will work with researchers doing one of these two types of studies:
- Non-interventional studies
Most of the research studies within the pilot are non-interventional. This means that the researcher does not need to have contact with patients, and they review health information to identify patterns in diseases and treatments. For non-interventional studies, all information that might identify patients is removed before it is given to the researcher.
- Interventional studies
Some of the studies within the pilot are interventional. This means that patients and their GP practice will be more involved in the study. Interventional studies are often used to review health and well-being in the future, for example a patient taking part in a study to test a new medicine. These studies are known as clinical trials.
For more information about clinical trials, how they work and why they are carried out please visit the UK Clinical Research Collaboration website: http://www.ukcrc.org/patientsandpublic/awareness/info/
For information on all the studies linked to the pilot HRSS please click here
For more information on how the pilot HRSS is working with GP practices and how it affects their patients please view the leaflet here.
To view pilot HRSS Frequently Asked Questions please click here
Protecting patient confidentiality
The HRSS will protect patients privacy by removing certain details that might identify them, for example their name and address, before the researcher is allowed to use the information.
The pilot HRSS will also make sure the researcher has all the relevant permission they need for a research study, before they are able to use the information.
All research studies working with the pilot HRSS have to go through a set of very strict tests before we are able to give access to health information for research.
For more information on these tests and how the pilot HRSS will control research studies click here.
Patient and Public Involvement
We are committed to embedding patient and public involvement in all aspects of the Health Research Support Service to ensure a patient centred approach is taken.
The Pilot HRSS will establish ways in which local, regional and national patient and public involvement stakeholders can provide feedback on the activities of the pilot HRSS to take patients views into account and shape the design of the main solution.
For more information on patient and public involvement within the pilot HRSS please click here