MRC VIPs call into Vaughan House for coffee, pizza (and some work too!).
Posted on November 28, 2014
Head of Population Health and Informatics at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Dr Janet Valentine and Programme Manager Dr Mark Pitman called into the Farr Institute’s Manchester office recently to catch up on the progress being made at the Health eResearch Centre (HeRC).
Having headed up the nine-strong consortium of funders that led to the creation of HeRC and The Farr Institute, the MRC have been a key investor in the science of Health Informatics and the harnessing of health information for patient benefit.
Keen to see how things are progressing, the afternoon started off with Dr Valentine and Dr Pitman joining staff at Manchester’s Vaughan House for coffee, pizza and an informal catch-up. There then followed a whistle stop tour of the various projects undertaken by the Centre including a number of live demonstrations and working prototypes.
The Software Development team were first up and presented the latest version of digital data-sharing platform, eLab. The increasingly popular virtual infrastructure is at the heart of HeRC’s CHIPSET theme and is the cornerstone of a number of new grants coming into the Centre. The software is also fast becoming the go-to solution for investigators involved in data-linkage research and ‘team science’ style collaborations.
The funders then had a chance to test out the ClinTouch app, from the CoOP theme; gain an insight into the work taking place in Asthma, Allergy and Andrology through HeRC’s SEA-3 research theme alongside a flurry of meetings with a host of theme leads and investigators.
Speaking about the visit, HeRC’s Head of Operations Dr Amanda Lamb said: “It was important to show Dr Valentine and Dr Pitman the range of work taking place at the Centre; they obviously want to see that their investment is bearing fruit. We were confident that both Janet and Mark would be impressed with the variety of working taking place and the level of innovation featured in HeRC projects across the board.
The feedback was really positive and it is reassuring to know that the work we are delivering at Farr@HeRC is both impressive and important to organisations such as the Medical Research Council”
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