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CRN South London's ODP app improves access to research for local people

CRN South London’s Business Intelligence Manager, Jessica Smith, believes a locally developed app has helped even more local people in the south London area to benefit from clinical research, while improving the network’s ability to monitor recruitment into studies.

The CRN South London Open Data Platform (ODP) application, launched in 2017, provides users with the latest research performance, recruitment and study activity data.

The app was developed as a way of streamlining the reporting, management and visibility of study information, including recruitment, from both the Central Portfolio Management System (CPMS) and Local Portfolio Management System (LPMS), EDGE in CRN South London, which has given research teams the capability to make real-time performance management decisions.

Jessica said: “I am quite proud of how far we have come. Integrating the information from EDGE into ODP means we can look at the bigger picture in terms of how our Partner Organisations are managing their research portfolios.

“I think the app has helped to take some of the guesswork out of how people manage their studies. As a network, we can also be more proactive by predicting when an intervention might be needed to tackle a problem.

“Right now, we are amongst the highest recruiting networks in the country and a lot of that is down to the engagement from our Partners. Our app is used by many different teams, including local delivery teams, Research and Development departments and chief investigators. In October we had over 100 unique users, and are currently in the top five most used National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) ODP apps. By monitoring usage we can also identify gaps in engagement, and focus our efforts in supporting teams in using and gaining access to our application.”

Jessica said the success in delivering EDGE across the network as part of the NIHR’s CRN project to link LPMS to CPMS has “revolutionised” the performance monitoring and reporting process for research teams.

The NIHR CRN is developing an integrated research intelligence system through data linkages between LPMS, CPMS,Integrated Research Application System and International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials Number Registry. Phase 3 of the project will see research activity from exception studies, those which continue to upload to CPMS due to study design, being transferred directly into LPMS.

The Business Intelligence Manager was recognised for her work by winning the Digital Leadership award at the NIHR Digital Festival earlier this year, with the network also winning the Most Connected Organisation award at the 2019 EDGE Conference. Jessica continued:

“The LPMS-CPMS project has given us transparency and access to a consistent and insightful data set which has huge benefits for CRN South London. There is still more we can do in terms of innovation, and fully embracing the digital way of working is going to continue to have a big impact on the processes of the network for many years to come. For example, we have already started using EDGE to manage some of our communications’ activities, as well as for improving and streamlining our industry feasibility process.

“It was a great honour to be recognised with two awards. The feedback we have received as a team has been really lovely. I’d also like to thank Information Officer Michael Garvey-Eckett and Information Systems Administrator Eóin McDonnell for all of their hard work. They have played a huge role in our achievements.”

You can visit the Business Intelligence Team's website for the latest training resources, ODP updates and news about the LPMS-CPMS project.