Date published: 31 January 2023
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust are delighted to announce a collaboration with long term partners Holmusk[i] and the University of Liverpool to establish a mental health analytics and research hub to translate mental health research into results that directly benefit people.
This partnership aims to improve the quality of life for mental health patients and service users through data analytics and digital solutions, resulting in more opportunities to access research and innovations, improved resource utilisation, streamlined care delivery and cost savings.
This flagship collaboration will focus on Liverpool as an area of high deprivation and need[ii], and will show how health systems can attract the next generation of leaders by positioning mental health as a field of innovative and state-of-the-art research.
Prof Joe Rafferty CBE, Mersey Care’s Chief Executive said, “We look forward to the opportunity to work with our partners on this new initiative. Investment in mental health research has huge potential to reduce health inequalities, improve outcomes for our populations and boost the economic growth for our region.
“With the implementation of Holmusk’s Management and Supervision Tool (MaST), which manages risk for service users and patients, we’ve already demonstrated the impact that digital solutions can have and we’re looking forward to continuing to develop innovations for the benefit of our communities
The partners establishing this hub all have deep expertise in mental health research and care delivery, including:
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, one of Europe’s leading institutions for mental health innovation, which was recognised in 2017 as a Global Digital Exemplar for its advanced digital transformation programmes.
- Holmusk, a leading global mental health and data analytics company building the world’s largest real-world evidence (RWE) platform for mental health.
- The University of Liverpool, one of the world’s leading centres for public health innovation, where its Institute of Population Health is becoming one of the UK’s leading hubs for digital innovation in connected mental health translational research.
Nawal Roy, Holmusk Founder and Chief Executive said, “We’re delighted to be a part of this new mental health analytics and research hub. There’s a dire need for better mental health care, and through this partnership, we can better collaborate to realise analytics-driven solutions for mental health and move the needle in a tangible way.”
The alliance will convene leaders from industry, mental health service provision, and academia, leveraging their respective data analytics, clinical and research expertise to develop a flagship mental health learning system.
This collaboration will also oversee the development of new tools to improve delivery of care, including the expansion of capabilities for MaST, Holmusk’s clinical workflow support systems that uses sophisticated predictive analytics to help mental health staff make better decisions about the resources they use to provide safer and higher quality care.
Mersey Care’s involvement with MaST and Holmusk dates back to 2018, when they became the first NHS organisation to adopt and shape MaST, leading to a number of awards. The University of Liverpool has also been developing advanced statistical and machine learning methods for predicting complex health events including mental health crises, in partnership with Mersey Care.
Professor Iain Buchan, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Liverpool said, “Our partnership will drive advances in predictive mental health care, evolving through close coupled science and service to meet the needs of those we serve.
"This collaboration will bring together data scientists with mental health researchers and professionals to create a learning system that improves prediction, refines interventions and evaluates outcomes by default.”