Services
FARSITE (Feasibility And Recruitment System for Improving Trial Efficiency)
Online tool for feasibility and recruitment called FARSITE (Feasibility And Recruitment System for Improving Trial Efficiency). FARSITE was developed by Hub partners NorthWest EHealth and is being implemented in North West London (NWL).
CASE STUDIES
Feasibility case studies
Evaluating OWise, a digital tool for supporting breast cancer patients
OWise Breast Cancer is a mobile platform and website allowing breast cancer patients to record their experiences in real time. The tool aims to improve ’patient activation’, a measure of the knowledge, skills and confidence a person has in managing their health and care.
View case studyCovidLife National Survey
Giving the chance to the Scottish and North West London based population to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic
View case studyWhat is FARSITE?
FARSITE (Feasibility And Recruitment System for Improving Trial Efficiency) is an online tool developed by hub partners North West EHealth (NWEH) for searching, finding, and contacting patients with research opportunities, whilst still preserving their confidentiality. It enables GPs to decide whether their patient should be contacted to be invited to participate in a specific research study.
FARSITE is being implemented in North West London through Discover-NOW in collaboration with NWEH.
How do researchers use FARSITE?
The principle behind FARSITE is to maintain patient confidentiality by anonymising the information given to researchers, and only allowing GPs to decide whether their patient should be contacted. Cohorts of less than five are not returned in search results.
Researchers do not have access to identifiable patient records – information about individuals who meet the criteria for a protocol is only available to the patient’s GP practice. Practices can only access data originating from their practice.
FARSITE for feasibility
Researchers use the FARSITE Feasibility view which contains anonymised data during the initial stages of cohort creation to see: how many patients match a trial protocol; the number of patients matching each criterion; and the number belonging to each registered GP practice. When the researcher is ready to recruit for a study they use FARSITE to contact selected GP practices.
FARSITE for recruitment
The FARSITE Recruitment view gives control for trial recruitment to the GP. Email prompts are sent to the practice when a new trial is available, or practice staff can log into FARSITE Recruitment and check to see if new studies are available. They can then use FARSITE Recruitment, when it is convenient, to review study documentation and the re-identified patients. FARSITE Recruitment is flexible: GP practices are not obliged to participate and can choose the trials with which they wish to engage.
As part of the recruitment process, the researcher creates an invitation letter template for the study and the necessary documentation including: a consent form, information sheet, study protocol, and ethics approval. These are made available to the GP when they decide to engage with a trial.
Other services
Study feasibility design
Feasibility is the starting block for your clinical trial. We can help you by running complex and powerful searches over our depersonalized patient record footprint in North West London population of 2.5 million to locate eligible patients who can be screened and invited to participate in your study by their GP.
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Population Health Analysis
Through analysing, evaluating and predicting, our specialist team will use the most relevant decision analytic modelling for your area of interest.
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Patient Recruitment
Our team will use our pre-consented patient population and technology assets to identify patients and accelerate the recruitment process and rapidly define protocols.