M-RIC hits important milestone in improving mental health care through the use of data 

A new project by the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC) is helping to improve how NHS data is used to understand and treat mental health conditions across Cheshire and Merseyside.

The project has recently reached a significant milestone as mental health data from Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust has now been securely linked with GP records from across Cheshire and Merseyside. This has been made possible through a partnership between M-RIC and the North West Secure Data Environment (SDE).

Dr Jim Hughes is Director of Digital and Data Programmes for M-RIC and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and the Cheshire and Merseyside Representative on the North West SDE Sponsor Group. He said:

“More than 80,000 people are receiving medication for long-term depression across Cheshire and Merseyside. 

“By securely bringing together mental health and GP data in this way, we can build a fuller picture of conditions like difficult-to-treat depression. This can allow researchers to better understand which medications work, and which do not, when it comes to treatment. 

“This is just one way the NHS in Cheshire and Merseyside is using health data to improve care for local people, both now and in the future.” 

Information related to mental health diagnoses and medication is usually stored in an unstructured way through notes, making it more difficult to analyse. A key aspect of this project is the ability to organise this data, together with the structured data, in one secure place – the North West SDE.

The North West SDE is an NHS data platform that supports health and care research. By bringing different sets of health data together in a safe and secure way, the project is helping researchers learn more about how to treat mental health conditions. This has the potential to improve the support provided to people using mental health services.  

The project is a partnership between M-RIC, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, and the North West SDE.