Notable projects
Notable projects
Embedded Files
During my time as Digital Project Manager and now as Senior Analyst at the National Institute for Research, I created a number of digital solutions to support the organisation in improving the management and delivery of clinical research across England
During my time as Digital Project Manager and now as Senior Analyst at the National Institute for Research, I created a number of digital solutions to support the organisation in improving the management and delivery of clinical research across England
NIHR Research Activity by NHS Regions and Integrated Care System
NIHR Research Activity by NHS Regions and Integrated Care System
To understand the geographic distribution of participants in research studies that the NIHR fund and support, and the level of research activity (participant recruitment into studies delivered by the NIHR) within different research site types (for example NHS trusts) and locations (for example NHS England regions), we have visualised research activity by analysing the proportion of NHS trusts and General Practices active in NIHR supported research within geographical boundaries aligned to the NHS.
The interactive dashboard can also be used to compare research activity with the location of higher rates of certain diseases or conditions.
The dashboard is designed to be scalable so that as new data emerges, it can be included to help provide a richer picture of the extent to which the NIHR is doing the right research in the right places, with the right people, including a focus on people and communities under-served by research.
Open Data Platform
Open Data Platform
Development in the CRN Greater Manchester ODP application began May 2017. Its main purpose was to improve accessibility to Greater Manchester portfolio activity for our core team and partner organisations. Since then, the application has been in continual development, utilising the feedback from numerous demonstrations to better meet the needs of the user. The application combines portfolio data provided by the coordinating through the IRIS system, with local data, connected to the application data model through Google Sheets.
Usage of the app throughout Greater Manchester has grown considerably over this and the previous financial year, averaging over 490 sessions a month, totaling over 7000 over the last 12 months. By delivering regular demos within all partner organisations, the app has been able to maintain a regular unique user count of over 80 a month, totaling over 430 unique users for the year.
ODP and COVID-19
ODP and COVID-19
From March 2020 onwards the development of our CRN Greater Manchester ODP application has been focused on ensuring that it is able to provide relevant and reliable data to our CRN team and wider partner organisation regarding the Urgent Public Health and Vaccine portfolio.
The development includes the creation of a number of additional tabs, including;
COVID-19 Restart
Urgent Public Health
Vaccine Recruitment
Vaccine C&C
Vaccine C&C Tool
The CRN Greater Manchester Vaccine Capacity and Capability Tool aims to provide the user with a one screen view of the network's vaccine delivery capabilities. This includes the capabilities of each individual site, including the number of PIs and Research staff as well as the ability to estimate the required personnel and equipment required to deliver a study, based on the available venue, and its participant capacity per day.
External data such as the NHS Digital Vaccine Volunteers and Public Health's COVID Data have been used to supplement the application.
ODP and Primary Care
ODP and Primary Care
The purpose of this dashboard is to provide the user with a comprehensive view of GP sites within Greater Manchester. The tab contains a number of external data sources, alongside existing portfolio activity data;
QOF Prevalence data by GP
GP Workforce
GP Practice Size
NIHR Portfolio Activity
The aim is to allow the user to identify potential practices for research based on their QOF register per specialty area.
Horizon Scanning
Horizon Scanning
Building upon the horizon scanning functionality that currently exists in ODP, the process of finding new studies has been made more accessible and efficient when delivered through an AppSheet application.
Requiring a simple download of the current horizon scanning table from ODP, updated as frequently as required, AppSheets can provide a UI where in which the user can explore potential NIHR trials by any of the following fields;
Managing Specialty
Sub-Specialty
Phase
Design Type
This will require minimal effort on the part of the user and can even be available through their mobile phone, whilst providing the same functionality as before
Utilising AppSheets, we are able to provide an application that provides the core team with the same horizon scanning list that they would find in ODP, but provide the functionality to review the study, deeming it, ‘Suitable, Maybe Suitable’ and ‘Not Suitable’ for our partner organisations to take part in. The resulting dataset is then plugged back into ODP, allowing the user to filter by the new CRN Review status.
Utilising the newly reviewed study list, the application will also allow the user to complete a DDT Review of those studies deemed suitable.
Additional functionality allows the user to contact the study team directly, as well as email the study details.
Manchester Trauma and Orthopaedic Research Network
Manchester Trauma and Orthopaedic Research Network
Throughout 2020-2021 CRN GM worked closely with the Orthopeadic and Trauma team. The purpose of this project is to develop a database to allow the Manchester Trauma and Orthopaedics Research Network, based at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust to record and track their portfolio studies progress as well as recruitment activity. The front end of the database will allow the users to visualise their data and will be developed as a new tab within the Greater Manchester ODP application.
So far, the project has been a brilliant opportunity to engage with our local orthopaedics consultants. Providing us with the opportunity to attend their monthly specialty meeting.
We hope that this project will encourage the team to engage further with the CRN, using the application to find new potential studies through the horizon scanning feature as well as encourage them to ensure their own studies become portfolio adopted.
Staff Resource Application
Staff Resource Application
As part of exploring new methods of engaging with our stakeholders, we wanted to establish whether the creation of our own CRN Greater Manchester mobile application would be a realistic possibility. We would like to achieve a new means of engaging with all layers of our stakeholder base. Providing them with up to date information directly to their smartphones as and when required. We hope to provide a new space for researchers to engage with the portfolio, providing them with the facilitating to accesses study information as and when they need it. The project will begin with a number of scoping exercises, including surveys sent out to our external stakeholders to help establish a core feature set.
Delivery Team Workforce Management App
Delivery Team Workforce Management App
Built within the Staff Support Application, the delivery team section provides the team with the functionality to allocate placements to delivery team staff, customise these placements with studies, and notes regarding the activity on their placement.
The application displays all of this information as a scheduler, providing the team with an oversight of their activities on a day by day basis.
This tool was developed using Google AppSheet and Google Script.
Primary Care Hub
Primary Care Hub
The purpose of the Primary Care Hub is to improve the support provided by the CRN to GP practices that are currently or hope to be research active. Encompassing the Research Solutions Initiative, the Primary Care Hub provides the following;
News and updates
List of portfolio studies open to new sites
Study information, resources and searches
Training resources and material
How to access support from the CRN
The primary focus of the website was usability, developed using feedback provided by our primary care sites, to ensure the content is clear, useful and accessible.
The website is maintained and managed by the Communications, Workforce and Primary Care team.
Induction Hub & Checklist
Induction Hub & Checklist
Induction Hub
Induction Hub
Encompassing the entire contents of the CRN Greater Manchester Induction documents, the new Induction Hub provides new starts with a user friendly induction process, with each page including a number of interactive features.
Following the flow of the website, the user will be given an overview of the organisation, each department, the teams and their purpose, as well everything they need to understand our online tools such as ODP and Google Workplace.
Following competition of the last page, the user will be able to complete a quick feedback form to receive their certificate.
Induction Checklist
Induction Checklist
Created using a combination of Google Sheets and Google Script. The induction checklist system allows the creation and distribution of both a line manager and new starter checklist.
Line Manager Checklist
Provides the line manager with a checklist of tasks that must be completed post their new colleagues start date and another to be completed post start date. The checklist includes everything from the creation of I.T accounts to mandatory training.
New Starter Checklist
Emailed to the line manager a week prior to the new starter start date, this checklist is to be forwarded to the new starter. Here, the new starter can find everything they must complete, including the required timescale in which they must be completed.
The line manager has the option to activate a Google Script, that will then forward a notification to the line manager once a task on the new starter checklist has been completed.
Induction.wmvAppraisal Tracker
Appraisal Tracker
The purpose of the appraisal tracker is to remind staff members and their line managers of their appraisal due date. This will help to ensure a consistent appraisal experience for all core team staff.
The process works as follows;
10 days before the appraisal date the system will send the paperwork link to the member of staff and remind them to share it 3 days before with their line manager (giving them 7 days to complete it).
3 days before it will email the line manager and member of staff to remind them to share and review the paperwork pre-meeting.
Once the appraisal has taken place, the member of staff and line manager will get an email at the end of the day or the next day reminding them to complete the link for Trust compliance and finalise the paperwork and signatures in 5 working days and share it with the senior leader before the post appraisal meeting.
3 days before the post-appraisal meeting the member of staff, the line manager and the member of the senior leadership team will receive an email to confirm the appraisal documentation has been shared ready for the post-review meeting.
The Post-review meeting will be approx 15mins long and will be an opportunity to raise any concerns and to be thanked for the hard work and commended on key achievements and milestones.
The process is fully automated, the only input required is when a staff member leaves or when a new one joins
Using Google Appsheets, a ‘front end’ has been created to allow new staff members to add their appraisal due date on to the tracker. The App, also allows existing staff members to change their appraisal date and line manager details if required.
Birthday Tracker
Birthday Tracker
The line managers of the people who have chosen to be involved to receive an automated email 3 weeks before the birthday.
This email will be a prompt for the line manager to put in place the birthday arrangements - whether that's to start a paper card, an electronic card, buy a gift etc.
Collect feedback from the birthday person after the birthday via an automated google form to find out if this was considered a positive act.
once the feedback email has been submitted, the systems will automatically add 365 days to the staff members birthday, ensuring a reminder is sent the following year and so fourth.
The system is fully automated, however, an AppSheet front end has been created to allow users to add and remove their birthday;
Automated Site Identification Process
Automated Site Identification Process
Having used Kanbanchi in the previous year, to establish a more efficient workflow industry and study support queries from the new shared inbox we felt it was important to use data extracted from Kanbanchi to establish which type of queries take the longest to complete. The findings indicated that Site ID forms were the most common form of query, and it was found that when creating Site ID forms they are regularly duplicating the same information, extending the length of time spent dealing with the query.
How it works
Site Identification Process.wmvIntroduce the automated Site ID process to all sites, thus reducing their workload and burden, and as a result we expect to see an increase in returned Site IDs. This may also lead to an increase in commercial activity across GM, as the Site IDs will be more detailed, consistent and professional. We hope that sites will find returning a complete site identification form as a much simpler process.
Automated Site ID & COVID-19
The process was piloted during the beginning of the pandemic, focusing on Urgent Public Health studies only. This provided the team with the opportunity to test the automation process, changing the system to ensure that it meets the needs of both the team and our partner organisations.
As a result of the successful pilot, the following changes were made;
Forms are now converted to Word and attached to email
User can add additional documentation
Study specific email content can be added
Add calendar reminder for facilitator to chase
Recruitment Upload and Confirmation Process
Recruitment Upload and Confirmation Process
The purpose of the project is to streamline the way in which our local study support service will track the non-commercial Greater Manchester led studies that either need to confirm or upload their recruitment activity via CPMS. Utilising a bespoke dashboard with the Greater Manchester ODP application, the new process will remove the need to filter data, proving the user exactly what they need to send reminder emails accurately and efficiently.
How will it work?
Impact
Using the new streamlined process, we aim to reduce the number of unconfirmed provisional recruits to Greater Manchester Led studies as well as ensure that manual studies are uploaded at least once a month.
Using tables in both our own Greater Manchester app and the Research Upload Support app, we hope to ensure manual studies are uploaded at least once a month and the percentage of provisional recruits remains at 10% or less.
Performance Monitoring
Performance Monitoring
I intended to create digital solutions to further semi-automate our industry and study support service to improve efficiency and productivity. The early months of the coming financial year will see a focus on ensuring the team can easily identify studies recently opened, due to closure and studies past their closure date.
Background & Impact
With the continued support from our internal BI team, Kanbanchi will be an integral system to monitor and evaluate the overall effectiveness of the service. The “active” studies will be managed through several metrics such as the overall RTT rating for the study, we will also look to include studies which are either recruiting slowly or have failed to recruit. These two aforementioned study measurements will trigger additional PRL reviews to be completed by the aRDM’s and RSM’s.
Kanbanchi will be used as the key component for tracking and highlighting study review dates, the ability to assign tasks will be a vital asset to allow us to separate and allocate tasks between the SSS teams and PRL. We also plan to use Kanbanchi as an internal check-list for LCRN system data entry; for example confirming the SSS metrics have also been captured at the required time points. This cross-check will also allow us to monitor data quality.
We will be moving away from the historic model of “standard, enhanced, bespoke” /1 monthly, 2 monthly and 3 monthly review dates. An assessment will be conducted by the PRL to evaluate the most effective time point for actual study monitoring. PRL’s will be working in closer collaboration with the study teams to establish the monitoring frequency. This agile approach will aid to support the whole study project during its lifecycle.
Upon completion of this initiative, we also hope that the team will have a number of newly established systems and processes that will work in reducing a number of manual administrative tasks, help to better monitor our HLO's and provide a robust dataset that will allow the team to make and track notes from study open to closure.
Early Contact and Engagement
Early Contact and Engagement
The purpose of this project is to improve the method in which the SSS and Industry team record their early contact and engagement interactions. This data is valuable in illustrating the teams interactions with both commercial and academic stakeholders, before their research study is accepted by the portfolio.
Through the application of a simple Google Sheet notes system, we have been able to facilitate the creation of an EC&C study record. Recorded in a master sheet, the user than submit additional interactions and information from further discussions using a further interactions sheet.
The master sheet is connect directly to ODP and is presented in a dedicated EC&E dashboard where the user can visualise both the study records and interactions. Furthermore, once a study has been deemed eligible and a CPMS ID has been submitted to the EC&E study record, the new dataset will help to provide the whole study life cycle.
Primary Care Expression of Interest
Primary Care Expression of Interest
Created using the existing primary care contact list, a pivot table and some Google script, the primary care EOI system allows the user to filter all of our existing primary care contacts, add study information and attachments and email each practice to advise them of the new study opportunity.
Furthermore, based on the type of study, UPH, Commercial or Non-commercial, the practice will be automatically be sent two reminders if they have not yet gotten back to the CRN Team.
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