CRIS Akrivia Launch

You are invited to a launch event for the Clinical Research Information Seach (CRIS) System, to promote its advantage of knowledge sharing for clinicians. The CRIS system processes electronic health records, de-identifying them so that we are able to look at real life data and cases, without breaching patient confidentiality. 

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has joined the Sussex Clinical Records Interactive Search (CRIS) Akrivia Health Platform, a computer information system that will allow us to carry out research, assess the effectiveness of our treatments and identify ways we can improve our services.Using this tool will allow us to see when there are patterns and trends emerging in mental health, service use and treatments. Researchers and clinicians will be able to use this data to help expand our understanding of medical conditions and improve the treatments and services that are being provided by the NHS and other organisations.

We believe CRIS can make a real and positive difference to future treatments and care through research, quality improvement and service related audit. Looking at information from a lot of different patients and services makes it easier to see patterns and trends; what works for some and does not for others The information in CRIS is protected by strict information security and by law. NHS organisations store information on a dedicated national computer network called the Health & Social Care Network (HSCN) - your personal data will not leave this network. CRIS has also received ethical approval from an independent committee as a secure and confidential information source for research and is running safely at several NHS Trusts in England. CRIS will only be available for use by researchers and clinicians who are working with Sussex Partnership on approved projects. These researchers may work within the Trust and/or in other collaborating organisations, such as another NHS trust or Academic institution that is developing a new treatment or approach, or a company that is developing a new medicine. The Trust has set up an Oversight Committee, consisting of clinicians and service users, to direct and regularly review the way CRIS is being used, and to determine which projects are allowed to use CRIS.

This study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration Kent, Surrey and Sussex (ARC KSS).