title: The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Biomedical Research Centre (SLAM BRC) case register: development and descriptive data.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Case registers have been used extensively in mental health research. Recent developments in electronic medical records, and in computer software to search and analyse these in anonymised format, have the potential to revolutionise this research tool.
  
  
  METHODS
  We describe the development of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLAM) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Case Register Interactive Search tool (CRIS) which allows research-accessible datasets to be derived from SLAM, the largest provider of secondary mental healthcare in Europe. All clinical data, including free text, are available for analysis in the form of anonymised datasets. Development involved both the building of the system and setting in place the necessary security (with both functional and procedural elements).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Descriptive data are presented for the Register database as of October 2008. The database at that point included 122,440 cases, 35,396 of whom were receiving active case management under the Care Programme Approach. In terms of gender and ethnicity, the database was reasonably representative of the source population. The most common assigned primary diagnoses were within the ICD mood disorders (n = 12,756) category followed by schizophrenia and related disorders (8158), substance misuse (7749), neuroses (7105) and organic disorders (6414).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The SLAM BRC Case Register represents a 'new generation' of this research design, built on a long-running system of fully electronic clinical records and allowing in-depth secondary analysis of both numerical, string and free text data, whilst preserving anonymity through technical and procedural safeguards.
authors.affiliation: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK. r.stewart@iop.kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: Mishael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Soremekun
authors.forename: Gayan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Perera
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Broadbent
authors.forename: Felicity
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Callard
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Denis
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hotopf
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thornicroft
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lovestone
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016494:Computer Security / Q000295:instrumentation; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005582:Foundations / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006753:Hospital Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000458:organization & administration*; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000145:classification; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016730:Program Development / Q000379:methods; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology
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