Finding and using routine clinical datasets for observational research and quality improvement

Primary care in the UK generates an extraordinary amount of data. There are more than 300 million consultations annually, creating unrivalled opportunities for research. The volume of patients that consult primary care practitioners daily, the variety of clinical conditions, the diversity of populat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of general practice 2018-03, Vol.68 (668), p.147-148
Main Authors: McDonnell, Lucy, Delaney, Brendan C, Sullivan, Frank
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Clinical Intelligence
Datasets as Topic
Electronic Health Records
Epidemiology
Health Surveys
Humans
Information Storage and Retrieval
Medical Audit
Medical Informatics
Observational studies
Observational Studies as Topic
Primary care
Primary Health Care
Public health
Quality Assurance, Health Care
Quality control
Quality Improvement
Researchers
Secondary Care
State Medicine
United Kingdom
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Summary:Primary care in the UK generates an extraordinary amount of data. There are more than 300 million consultations annually, creating unrivalled opportunities for research. The volume of patients that consult primary care practitioners daily, the variety of clinical conditions, the diversity of populations, and the transfer from hand-written records to comprehensive electronic medical systems have heralded a new era in primary care research. Furthermore, the linkage of primary and secondary care data systems creates opportunities for prospective and retrospective studies and epidemiological insights into population health. Increasing accessibility of rich data has changed the landscape of research in the community. As well as large datasets based around electronic medical records, primary care researchers also have access to alternative sources of data, which are often free. The aim of this article is to highlight datasets that are available to primary care researchers and to give examples of how they have been used in primary care research.
ISSN:0960-1643
1478-5242
DOI:10.3399/bjgp18X695237