Remarks
The Health Improvement Network - THIN is covered by Thomson Reuters Data Citation Index.
Additional Information Services (AIS) is the division of THIN which obtains anonymised hard copy information for medical studies.
AIS liases with THIN data contributors on behalf of researchers to obtain documents which add valuable information to studies. This information can be in the form of anonymised questionnaires completed by the GP or patient, copies of patient-related correspondence, a specified intervention (e.g. a laboratory test to confirm diagnosis) or death certificates.
All documentation is depersonalised by the practice and checked by AIS to ensure anonymisation is complete before the information is supplied to the researcher.
All studies have ethical approval by NHS Multicentre Research Ethics Committees (MREC) before AIS requests are made to practices.