Barts Health NHS Trust Named Finalist for DPC’s Digital Preservation Awards!

Recognised for innovative long-term digital preservation of clinical research records.

We are delighted to announce that Barts Health NHS Trust has been selected as a finalist for the 2024 Digital Preservation Awards by the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), in recognition of their collaboration with Arkivum to pioneer long-term preservation of clinical research records.

Given the challenges associated with managing substantial volumes of clinical records in paper format, on CDs, and USB sticks, coupled with regulatory demands (e.g., eTMF retention period of 25 years), Barts Health NHS Trust recognised the need for a long-term preservation solution.

As digital record requests surged in 2020, many records were temporarily relocated to SharePoint until a permanent solution could be established. In early 2023, Barts Health NHS Trust implemented Arkivum’s long-term archiving and preservation solution, enabling compliance with regulations and mitigating risks associated with maintaining records for their required retention periods.

“We used a risk-based approach to procure Arkivum’s system. Now that we have an approved digital archive in place, we’ve been able to completely mitigate the risk and accept hybrid (paper and digital) transfer requests. It’s very satisfying to know that we can now provide a full, long-term records storage service that meets all the required standards.”

Sandra Blake, Corporate Records Manager for Barts Health NHS Trust

By adopting a robust digital preservation strategy, Barts Health NHS Trust is setting a precedent in healthcare research, ensuring data integrity and accessibility for future advancements.

Following their successful transition into long-term preservation, Barts Health NHS Trust aims to help other NHS Trusts that cannot procure their repositories and promoting awareness of digital preservation.

For more details on the Digital Preservation Awards, visit DPC’s official site. NHS research records: Reducing Risk – Digital Preservation Coalition (dpconline.org)

If you would like to hear more about how Barts Health NHS Trust has moved forward with digital archiving and preservation, we recently hosted a webinar and the recording is available for you to view here.