With the true demographic extent of mental ill
health in Lambeth and Southwark unknown, a unique research project
is underway that aims to provide a much-improved understanding of
the issue.
The Nucleus launched in 2009, under South London and Maudsley
NHS Foundation Trust's National Institute of Health Research
Biomedical Research Centre. It forms the informatics hub for the
Biomedical Research Centre in Mental Health (BRC-MH), which is
unique in the UK, and unites the South London and Maudsley NHS
Foundation Trust and its key academic partner, the Institute of
Psychiatry, King's College London (KCL).
The project reflects the Charity's commitment to the improvement
of mental and physical health in the local population, and as such
the Charity has contributed £1.2 million to the £3 million project.
The SLaM Charitable Funds have provided the remaining £1.8 million
of the project.
Research focuses on dataset analysis and sample management,
using biological and population data to provide a better
understanding of the effectiveness of treatment and therapy, and to
aid the improvement of care pathways.
Two projects currently underway include the South East London
Community Health Survey (SELCoH) which is a household survey of
mental and physical health in Lambeth and Southwark; and the
Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS). CRIS is a computer
programme that anonymises data from SLaM clinical records, giving
researchers the opportunity to analyse previously unavailable
volumes of data.
Examples of recent and ongoing applications include the
examination of mortality and mental disorder, and linking clinical
and biological data to identify biomarkers for conditions including
mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's. An additional aim is to
link CRIS with other data sets such as primary care data and cancer
data to assess how people with mental ill health move within the
healthcare system.
"The BRC Nucleus is unparalleled in the comprehensive data it
offers researchers. It provides large volumes of data that
have previously been difficult to obtain or analyse properly, as
well as the infrastructure to allow research to take place in the
most effective way," says Professor Matthew Hotopf, Director of the
BRC Nucleus, and Chair of the BRC Analytical Methods Theme.
As a measure of its success, in August 2011 the National
Institute of Health Research awarded the BRC-MH a 48 per cent
increase on its current level of funding, largely in recognition of
its role in clinical informatics, for which it has also received a
national leadership role.