How NHS DigiTrials can support your trial

Our research has shown that many people are keen to take part in trials - both for the chance to try new treatments, and to help others.

Contact us to find out more about our services and receive a tailored quote:

Email: [email protected] 

Phone: 0300 3035678

Label your email 'NHS DigiTrials' to help us direct your email to the correct team as quickly as possible.

What we do

When you are at the planning stage of your trial, our Feasibility Service can help you establish how many people might meet your eligibility criteria.

The service can also support you in determining suitable locations for your trial, by establishing where the largest groupings of eligible people are based. 

Our Feasibility Service can be accessed in two ways: 

1. Feasibility Self-Service (in public beta)

We have developed a self-service tool where you can run your own searches in real-time and export your results in a secure Data Access Environment (DAE). The DAE provides secure access to the health and care data we hold and reduces the need for it to leave NHS England.

The source data assets used currently are: 

• Personal Demographics Service (updated daily)
• Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) - Admitted Patient Care (updated monthly) 
• Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) – Outpatient (updated monthly)
• Medicines dispensed in primary care (updated monthly) 

We provide guidance on how to access and use this service. 

Read our Feasibility Self-Service guidance

Watch our Feasibility Self-Service videos

2. Managed Feasibility Service

For more specific or detailed data needs, we offer a tailored service. Our case officers will work with you to unpack your needs and help you locate the data you require.

How it works

Our Feasibility Service runs searches of data that is routinely collected by the NHS in England and held by NHS England. This national data from a range of healthcare settings can help your trial reach communities across England. 

The searches are aggregated and small numbers are suppressed so individuals cannot be identified. This means the application process for using our Feasibility Service is less complex than for other data access requests.

The searches show how many people meet your trial's eligibility criteria, and where they are located.

How to apply

You need to download and fill in our Feasibility Request Form, which asks for more information about your trial.

The form can be used to apply for either Feasibility Self-Service or our Managed Feasibility Service. The form takes you to the section you need to complete for your required service.

Email your completed form to: [email protected] and enter 'NHS DigiTrials Feasibility Service' in the subject line. 

What we do

We can support your trial through the process of locating and contacting people who are eligible to take part in your research. The aim of this service is to smoothly and efficiently recruit trial participants.

How it works

Our Recruitment Service can only help trials that would be eligible to receive Section 251 support under the NHS Act 2006, which allows a temporary lifting of the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality. 

Find out more about Section 251 on the Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG) website

We can work with you to guide you through the Section 251 application process.

Our knowledge and expertise can ensure your application proceeds as smoothly as possible, from establishing if a trial might be eligible for Section 251 through to submission of your application and support being granted.

Our Recruitment Service is currently in the pilot phase, supporting a limited number of trials.

We intend to roll out the service to more organisations in 2023. Please email us to let us know if you might like to partner with us in the future.

Find out more

Email: [email protected] to find out more about how our Recruitment Service can support your trial. Please enter 'NHS DigiTrials Recruitment Service' in the subject line of your email.

If you are contacting us about an existing enquiry or application, include your NIC number when you get in touch.

We have prepared some step-by-step guidance on applying for identifiable data.

What we do

Keeping participants informed about a trial is an important part of the end-to-end process, providing they have consented to receiving updates. 

Our Communication Service enhances how information is shared between clinical triallists and trial participants, both during and after clinical trials. 

We can support with the efficient distribution of communications such as newsletters, study outcomes and surveys by post. We intend to enhance our service to include more communication channels in the future. 

We use national data to ensure communications are only sent to trial participants who have given consent to receive the information.

The data can also identify if participants have moved house, passed away or withdrawn consent, so communications can be adapted appropriately.

How it works

Under the Data Sharing Agreement and Data Processing Agreement between your trial's organisation and NHS England, we are able to identify the contact address for people who have signed up to a trial and consented to receive information about the research. 

We are able to automatically check a trial participant's most up-to-date address. Our check also shows if any participants have passed away, so their details can be removed from mailing lists to minimise distress to family members.  

This information is securely shared with our approved mailing providers, who send out the communication to the trial participants.

It means that the communications element of your trial can be managed centrally, which is particularly useful for multi-centre trials. Our service also takes the pressure of managing participant communications away from front-line research colleagues.

Find out more

Email: [email protected] to find out more about how our Communication Service can support your trial. Please enter 'NHS DigiTrials Communication Service' in the subject line of your email.  

If you are contacting us about an existing enquiry or application, include your NIC number when you get in touch.

Applying for identifiable data

We have prepared some step-by-step guidance on applying for identifiable data.

What we do

Our Outcomes Service can help you follow the progress of your trial participants. 

This service provides national, routinely collected datasets from a range of healthcare settings.

These datasets will help you efficiently explore and assess the outcomes of your trial treatments.

How it works

Our Outcomes Service helps you follow up your participants by requesting their data from NHS England, providing your trial has the necessary legal basis.

Under a Data Sharing Agreement and Data Processing Agreement between your trial's organisation and NHS England, you will securely share with us a list of trial participants.

The list ls usually made up of people who have consented to:

• their identifiable data being linked to our national datasets
• relevant data being extracted according to the needs of your trial

We can help you to establish if you have the correct legal basis to do this. This linked data will then be made available to your team to securely retrieve for analysis.

Find out more

Email: [email protected] to find out more about how our Outcomes service can support your trial. Enter 'NHS DigiTrials Outcomes Service' in the subject line of your email.  

If you are contacting us about an existing enquiry or application, include your NIC number when you get in touch.

Applying for identifiable data

We have prepared some step-by-step guidance on applying for identifiable data.