NWL Health Research Register for Researchers & Industry

What is NWL Health Research Register?

A register of patients who have consented to be contacted about research opportunities that are relevant to them. The intention is to radically improve the way we recruit to studies and ensure that our partners are able to recruit their target numbers, to time.

If you are a researcher or from industry and have any queries about what we can offer, please contact us on researchers@registerfordiscover.org.uk. You can also read our most recent case studies about how we work with patients, researchers and industry to help improve healthcare for all.

Why have we set up NWL Health Research Register?

North West London has a buoyant research landscape with prestigious universities, innovative hospital trusts, an engaged primary care sector and most importantly, a diverse population. We also carry out a lot of research in North West London, however this is not without its challenges. 

Challenge 1

Under the NHS Constitution, all patients should be given the opportunity to participate in studies which are relevant to them. Locally our approach is a postcode lottery, with patient participation depending on which hospital or GP practice they are being treated by.

Challenge 2

Understanding how many patients exist who fit study criteria and may want to participate in a study is almost
impossible, leaving us guessing at study feasibility.

Challenge 3

Our recruitment methods are rudimentary and time consuming. Study recruitment can take a long time, and recruiting a sufficient number of patients quickly is difficult.

Challenge 4

We are not currently harnessing the power of our local patient data to enable innovative research and delivery of life changing patient outcomes.

What can NWL Health Research Register offer?

NWL Health Research Register seeks to address these research challenges in North West London and has been developed by Imperial College Health Partners (ICHP), the Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) for North West London.

ICHP is a partnership organisation of nine NHS Trusts, three universities (Imperial College, Brunel University and Buckinghamshire New University) and eight Clinical Commissioning Groups from across North West London, all of whom have access to Discover.

NWL Health Research Register provides a number of products and services to our NHS academic, research and industry communities. 

NWL Health Research Register for North West London

A register of patients who have consented to be contacted about research opportunities that are relevant to them. The intention is to radically improve the way we recruit to studies and ensure that our partners are able to recruit their target numbers, to time.

Feasibility Dashboard

This is a self-service dashboard which allows users to ask simple study feasibility questions, to support study design in North West London. 

Analytical Offerings

The real power of NWL Health Research Register is the linked integrated patient level data. The data which NWL Health Research Register uses is drawn is from the Whole Systems Integrated Care dataset (WSIC). This is one of the most powerful data sets in the UK, containing linked coded data from primary care, secondary care, community, mental health and social care across a population of over 2.6 million.

Using this data, we are delighted to be able to provide a number of fantastic offerings to our local research and industry communities:

• Help identify ‘hard to find’ patients for clinical trials (who have consented to take part in research) to participate in real world studies to assess the impact of innovation in real world settings. 
• Provide the tools, technology and expertise to enable and form research collaborations.
• Conduct retrospective aggregated studies to understand the effectiveness and impact on whole system health and social care services.