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Participant Identification Centre (PIC) Data Project Update – NIHR

Date: 26 April 2023

As part of the Primary Care Strategy, and in response to recommendations laid out in the Life Sciences Sector 2 Deal, the PIC Data Project was launched In December 2022. The project aimed to develop a consistent process to recognise and celebrate the contribution of PICs to NIHR CRN Portfolio research studies at a national level.

Following the establishment of a defined methodology to record PIC involvement on CPMS, a large data integrity exercise was undertaken to ensure that PIC-related information on study records was correct and reflected the true activity undertaken by PICs for studies meeting the following criteria:

  • Open to recruitment in the 2022/2023 financial year
  • Closed to recruitment in the 2022/2023 financial year
  • Closed to recruitment in the 2021/2022 financial year.

Thanks to the hard work and ongoing effort of colleagues across all 15 LCRNs, the number of PICs recorded on CPMS for studies meeting these criteria has increased by over 2,000, with dramatic improvements noted in the numbers of PICs marked as “active” or “inactive”, across approximately 2,380 studies. The NIHR wish to thank everyone for their continued input into, and dedication to, this project over the last five months, and they are pleased to announce that this data integrity exercise will become part of business as usual activities from 1 April 2023, with the data collected to date used as a baseline against which future PIC involvement will be measured.

To support the Network-wide rollout of this process, the “Recognising Participant Identification Centre Activity in CPMS” SOPhas been drafted to enable all colleagues to continue to record PIC activity on an ongoing basis, along with a suite of operational QlikSense dashboards developed to both support the identification of PICs participating in Portfolio research, and visualise the PICs who have contributed to study delivery. Moving forward, this data will be used to support improved recognition for NHS/HSC organisations who participate in research studies as a PIC.

Over the coming months, the QlikSense dashboards will be further developed to include an executive summary page, to provide an overview of current PIC activities across the Network for reporting purposes.

Please direct any operational questions to the relevant Portfolio inboxes.

  • Portfolio A (portfolioa@nihr.ac.uk)
  • Portfolio B (portfoliob@nihr.ac.uk)
  • Industry Team (support@nihr.ac.uk)

If you have any questions about the project, please contact: James Williamson, Research Delivery Lead (james.williamson@nihr.ac.uk) or Chris Walsh, Research Delivery Facilitator (chris.walsh@nihr.ac.uk).

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