MICA: Mental Health Data Pathfinder: University of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, and Microsoft

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With strong NHS partnerships and recent contributions to national mental health (MH) informatics, we shall add novel methods, epidemiology and phenotyping to the MH Platform. We envisage a modular pipeline that de-identifies MH data; supports flexible consent for
sharing/contact; and links MH, cognitive, physical, psychosocial and biomarker data.
Project (P) 1. Our open-source tools de-identify clinical records to create CPFT’s Research Database, supporting research and participation. We shall extend them to generate anonymised subsets and link data from consenting patients across MH/community services,
acute care, and research organizations, including from existing deeply phenotyped longitudinal cohorts. We emphasize rigorous interface standards and NHS governance over identifiable/pseudonymised data. We shall collaborate on a national natural language
processing framework, allowing NHS/research organizations to generate structured data from
free text.
P2. We have created novel open-source neuropsychiatric assessment software. We shall
extend it for broad and integrated NHS and research use. This will take automated cognitive testing into routine clinical practice. As a bold but tractable exemplar with research and clinical applications, we shall use it to apply electronic diagnostic algorithms and neuropsychiatric phenotyping, and link these detailed data to clinical records and biomarkers that include
immunophenotyping.
P3. We shall apply P1 tools to a public health crisis: the premature death of those with serious mental illness. We shall link MH, national and acute Trust data and use machine learning to develop early predictors of mortality.
P4. We shall democratize MH research though broad consultation on generic tiered consent models for data-sharing and participation, by giving the research database direct clinical interfaces, and by enhancing data visualization to help clinicians and service users develop research and the NHS improve local services.