Greater Manchester Care Record celebrated at research excellence event

The National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) Greater Manchester hosted an Evening of Excellence last night, to celebrate the valuable achievements made in research delivery across Greater Manchester, East Cheshire and East Lancashire.

The NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (GM PSTRC) submitted three entries which included an entry for accelerating research with the Greater Manchester Care Record (GMCR). All three entries were selected to be presented at the event, with the GMCR being recognised for the Community Catalyst category.

Graphnet is the technology provider for the GMCR. It is a shared care record which amalgamates essential information for 2.8 million citizens and is used by health and social care professionals for improved direct care across the region’s 10 localities.

The GMCR was a massive programme delivered at speed, which is now playing a crucial role in the region’s fight against Covid-19. Anonymised data from the shared record has proved to be a valuable resource for researchers to support the response. While ensuring data security and good information governance, researchers are accessing the data to answer important research questions.

Research work that has taken place using the GMCR so far includes: an analysis of the reduction in diagnoses in primary care, the equity of the vaccine rollout and the effect of the pandemic on mental health and the incidence of self-harm.

The NIHR provide practical support to allow high-quality research to take place in NHS, public health and social care settings across Greater Manchester, East Cheshire and East Lancashire. The institute aims to gather evidence that leads to new and better care and treatments for patients and the public.

The GMCR team consists of the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (GM PSTRC), NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARC-GM), GM Population Research Resource, The University of Manchester, the Greater Manchester Academic Health Science Network (AHSN), Health Innovation Manchester, Graphnet, and the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership.