EpiCov Version1.0
Research type
Research Database
IRAS ID
284943
Contact name
John Bradley
Contact email
Research summary
EpiCov
REC name
East of England - Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/EE/0270
Date of REC Opinion
30 Nov 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion
Data collection arrangements
The EpiCov database has been established to create a well-curated resource with de-identified patient-level and NHS staff-level data from the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) Electronic Health Record (eHR) systems comprising EPIC, PACS, CUH based laboratory information management systems (LIMS) and other COVID-19 relevant information systems.
The database will include routinely collected information about patients diagnosed with COVID-19 or suspected of having COVID-19, and staff who have been tested for COVID-19. In addition, the database will contain data on a large number of control patients. The control data is needed for two reasons. First, there is a need to control for variation in age, season, and gender. Second, a large enough set of control cohorts is required to enable large scale informatics projects designed to identify the clinical signatures or variations that are unique to COVID-19, as distinct from other viral or inflammatory conditions.
No direct personal identifiers (such as name, date of birth, contact details, hospital or NHS number) will be included in the database. All information will be identified, extracted and pseudonymised by the CUH Clinical Informatics Team who routinely process patient data.Research programme
The database will facilitate a variety of research related to COVID-19 aimed at improving health, treatment or services. Research will include large bioinformatics studies using advanced analytics, such as machine learning, with the aim of learning about correlations between predictive variables. The EpiCov database will both enable local researchers to fully utilise the Electronic Health Record resource for research, and also allow for the contribution of curated CUH EHR data to other national and international collaborative COVID-19 projects and databases.
Research database title
EpiCov
Establishment organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Establishment organisation address
Research and Development
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Hills Road, Cambridge
CB2 0QQ