QResearch-Oxford Data Linkage Project
Research type
Research Database
IRAS ID
257790
Contact name
Julia Hippisley-Cox
Contact email
Research summary
QResearch-Oxford Data Linkage Project
REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/EM/0400
Date of REC Opinion
27 Dec 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion
Data collection arrangements
The QResearch linked database includes \n(a) anonymised data from primary care on year of birth, sex, date of death, ethnic group, prescriptions, diagnoses, clinical values, referrals, medication and allergies\n(b) up to 15 causes of death (ICD10) on the mortality record from ONS\n(c) cancer registration data including the date of diagnosis, route to diagnosis, tumour site, size, type, grade, stage, prognosis, histology, treatments (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery)\n(d) Hospital Episode Statistics Admissions, Outpatient, A&E and critical care
Research programme
QResearch is a high quality ethical research database of anonymised data from primary care linked to mortality , cancer and hospital data. It provides access to the data for bona fide research designed to deliver benefits for patients and the NHS. Access is restricted to academic researcher employed by UK universities (including secondees with honorary contracts). All researchers undergo information governance training prior to receiving data which is then updated on an annual basis. Typically research teams include clinical academics, data scientists, epidemiologists, statisticians and IT support. All research projects involve at least one doctor registered with the General Medical Council. The results of the research are all published and used widely within the health service in the UK and internationally. COVID-19 amendment 30/03/2020. In order to answer urgent research questions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly around the natural history of the disease and risks associated with intercurrent medication and morbidities, we need to link our existing GP database to the national ITU database. The ITU database has clinical data for patients with the most severe form of COVID which can be linked to primary care data on prescriptions. There is no other way to answer these research questions which require both scale and speed. There are two main changes required 1. to expand the GP practices contributing to Research to include practices which use a different computer system known as Systome which is supplied by a company known as TPP. This will give a larger population of patients and enable more national coverage of patient who subsequently go into hospital and onto ITU and then die from COVID. 2. to link to a new database of data from 185 Intensive Care Units nationally which has the clinical data for all patients on ITU including those with severe disease requiring ventilation. This data will be anonymised at source using the existing approved processes and governance controls for anonymising and linking data. The resulting database will continue to be anonymised. No direct identifiers are received or will be received by Oxford.
Research database title
QResearch-Oxford Data Linkage Project
Establishment organisation
Nuffield Department of Primary Care Sciences, University of Oxford
Establishment organisation address
Radcliffe Observatory Quarter
Woodstock Road
Oxford
OX2 6GG