GP supplier TPP has announced it will be collaborating with Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) to provide pseudonymised data for health research.
GP practices using TPP’s SystmOne solution will be able to send the de-identified patient data on a daily basis to CPRD.
CPRD is a government research service, jointly supported by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
The service, which is endorsed by NHS England, the NIHR Clinical Research Network and the Royal College of GPs, collects de-identified patient data from GP practices across the UK for public health research.
Research using CPRD data has informed drug safety guidance and clinical practice and resulted in over 2,000 peer-reviewed publications.
It is hoped TPP’s collaboration with CPRD will significantly increase the amount and geographical spread of data available for research while also enabling GP practices to more easily recruit suitable patients for NHS trials, subject to relevant consents.
Consenting practices, which are part of a pilot roll out, will start submitting data from November 2018.
Other practices wishing to join the CPRD will be able to do so during the first quarter of 2019.
Patient identity will be protected using a strongly pseudonymised linkage process, with an encrypted delivery mechanism.
Medical records of patients who have opted out of their data being used for research will not be shared.
Back in 2012, ministers argued the service would help improve public health by giving researchers a better understanding of the causes of diseases, develop new treatments for patients, and attract investment to the UK’s life sciences sector.
16 October 2018 @ 12:06
Should be pointed out (for clarity):
Data leaving GP practices is pseudonymised, NOT anonymised.
Accordingly, it is regarded as personal data and must comply with common law.
That is why CPRD have s251 (HRA CAG) approval, annually, for this data extraction, which sets aside the common law of confidentiality (i.e. does not require the explicit consent of data subjects), on the basis that “patient consent is not practicable to obtain”.
s251 is “permissive” – practices are under no obligation (legal or contractual) to upload to CPRD, but can choose to do so if they wish