WORKSTREAMS
Population & Clinical Analytics
Using data collected by public services to help clinicians and service managers make
better decisions.
Clinical Record Interactive Search
One of our main data assets is the Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS). We use CRIS to access electronic health records from secondary mental health services at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, including CAMHS, for both service evaluations and research.
These records are de-identified at the point of access for research, meaning that all personal identifiers have been removed. CRIS has strict safeguards and governance processes, including an external service user led oversight committee, and patients can opt-out of their data being used for research.
CRIS provides a rich data asset for the CAMHS Digital Lab. For example, we have used this data to understand ethnic inequalities in the referral pathways of young people accessing CAMHS, and CAMHS treatment pathways for young people with depression (see publications below for more examples).
Data linkage
We have pioneered the linkage of CRIS data with a number of other external data sources: watch our Academic Lead Dr. Alice Wickersham explain more about this in the video below.
We've linked CRIS to the Department for Education’s National Pupil Database, which comprises socio-demographic characteristics, educational attainment, school absence, special educational needs provision and looked after child status, for all pupils in England’s state-maintained schools. We use this to understand the relationships between mental health and educational outcomes.
So far, we have used this data linkage to understand relationships between mental health and school absence, depression and educational attainment and special educational needs and self harm.​
CRIS has also been linked to NHS Digital’s Hospital Episode Statistics, Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service and we are currently working on linking CRIS to the Ministry of Justice’s Police National Computer.
​Crucially, our methods can be replicated using data from other NHS Trusts, or using government datasets on a national scale. For example, as part of another project, we are using a national data linkage between the National Pupil Database and Police National Computer to understand relationships between education and criminal justice, and we are using analytical methods which we first developed in the National Pupil Database and CRIS data linkage.
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Watch the video below to find out more about data linkages.
Working with clinical services
The CAMHS Health Intelligence Group (CHIG) oversees all of the CAMHS Digital Lab activities to make sure that our work is relevant to clinical services.
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The CHIG's main objective is to implement a robust health intelligence system delivered through co-design, data science and informatics approaches. This system will provide clinicians, service managers and commissioners with better insights allowing them to provide mental health support for children and young people. The group works closely with clinical services to ensure that tools developed within the lab’s other workstreams are implemented in a manner which can assist the challenges associated with service delivery.
Clinical Dashboards
An important output that the CHIG has overseen are the Clinical Dashboards, which we have developed with our NHS partners to provide easily accessible health intelligence tools available at point of care to assist in clinical decision making. Initial products include the presentation of longitudinal outcome data and caseload management. Products have been designed by clinicians to support treatment monitoring and effectiveness. Plans over the next 18 months include providing more nuanced information relating to individualised care pathways.
Research Publications
Digital Lab Workstreams
High impact, design-led translational initiatives aimed to transform child mental health services across the NHS and the rest of the world.
