Primary Care Clinical Informatics Unit Research

Primary Care Clinical Informatics Unit Research
Background

The Primary Care Clinical Informatics Unit (PCCIU) was founded in 1999 to provide a reporting service to Scottish General Practice in collaboration with Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Scotland as part of their Clinical Effectiveness Programme to collect Practice data and to produce SPICEpc reports to Practices, Community Health Partnerships (CHPs) and Health Boards for the SPICEpc project. PCCIU collected Practice data for the SPICEpc Programme bi-annually in spring and autumn between 2000 and 2011. The collected data for each season was amalgamated to a single seasonal general practice database. Each seasonal database contains all data recorded into GPASS up to the date of extraction from the Practice. All our seasonal databases can be used to provide datasets to PCCIU approved researchers.

Between May 1996 and September 2000 a Monthly Bulletin was sent to Practices. These were for specific clinical topics,  based on data collected from Practices by the Electronic Questionnaire (EQ) software. During this period, The GPASS Data Evaluation Project (GDEP) conducted three National surveys on the state of computerisation in Scottish Primary Care.

PCCIU was formerly known as the GPASS Data Evaluation Project (GDEP). GDEP was founded in 1987 to determine the level and range of usage of GPASS by Practices. GDEP developed the Electronic Questionnaire software to collect anonymous patient clinical and registration data to Aberdeen for analyses. All practices' results were collated and various reports were produced and issued to Practices and Health Boards.

Between 1994 and 1995 GDEP developed a prototype of a standardised Practice Health Profile to allow Practices to compare their own health needs and performance with similar data from local, regional and national sources. The prototype was implemented and tested in two pilot Grampian Practices. In this period, GDEP also developed two searching programs, Practice Reports Utility (PRU) and Practice Analysis Tool (PAT) to provide fast searching on the GPASS system.

In 1993 GDEP initiated the Continuous Morbidity Recording project, supported by ISD (Information and Statistics Division, National Services Scotland). This project recruited about 60 Practices, throughout Scotland, representing most types of locality and deprivation. Every clinical encounter was recorded into GPASS with a suitable Read code and an indication of first, recurrent or new. GDEP recruited the Practices and developed a data collection system and processing for its first years. This Project is now called Practice Team Information (PTI), operated by ISD.

Find out more about the data we collected, visit the PCCIU Data page.

PCCIUR Team

Contact: researchapps@abdn.ac.uk

Research Applications and Data Management Team

The Research Applications and Data Management team is responsible for the provision of PCCIUR datasets to researchers.

The team is supported by the College of Life Science and Medicine (CLSM) but comes under IT Services (ITS)  - we provide data management services to researchers within the University, NHS Grampian and other external customers.

We offer the following: Consultancy, Project Management, Record Linkage, Anonymisation service, Data Hosting, Database Design, Database Support and/or Development, Data Analysis and Web Applications.

Web: www.abdn.ac.uk/it/services/data-management

Email: researchapps@abdn.ac.uk

Data Collected

What data did we collect

  • Details of patient encounters.
  • Details of Read coded diagnoses, results, problems and procedures 
  • Details of measurements.
  • Details of issued prescriptions.
  • Date of birth (only month and year), gender and postcode to sector level (e.g. G43 2), registered clinician.
  • Clinician cypher, if present, for each clinician.

Limitations of data

Our data collection is reliant on the data entry systems and completeness within our contributing Practices. Some of these Practices may be 'paperlight' with more complete data entry relating to consultations. The majority will utilise a mixed system of computer and paper recording.

Prescription data and diagnosis coding for Clinical summaries is expected to be quite complete, particularly looking back over the last 10 years. In addition, from 2003, items relating to QOF will be well recorded.

Data relating to consultations and types of encounters are collected but is expected that this data may be less accurate.

We do not collect patient or clinician identifiable data, nor do we collect any free text (clinical notes).

Data Archive

We have collected clinical data from general practice for several years. Subsets of these data are available (subject to approval and by following the PCCIUR application process).

Dataset Total Practices
Spring 2007 318
Autumn 2007 272
Spring 2008 240
Autumn 2008 212
Spring 2009 191
Autumn 2009 178
Spring 2010 173
Autumn 2010 133

QOF & Calendar Year Populations

We combined the latest data we received from each Practice since spring 2007 into a single dataset. There are 393 Practices. Using this dataset, we identified the following numbers of patients registered for at least one day in the time period given.

Search StartDate EndDate Practices Patients
QOF Year 2010/11 01/04/2010 31/03/2011 54 317,392
QOF Year 2009/10 01/04/2009 31/03/2010 172 1,069,264
QOF Year 2008/09 01/04/2008 31/03/2009 241 1,487,581
QOF Year 2007/08 01/04/2007 31/03/2008 292 1,723,680
QOF Year 2006/07 01/04/2006 31/03/2007 368 2,191,185
Calendar Year 2010 01/01/2010 31/12/2010 87 551,837
Calendar Year 2009 01/01/2009 31/12/2009 194 1,232,709
Calendar Year 2008 01/01/2008 31/12/2008 244 1,508,304
Calendar Year 2007 01/01/2007 31/12/2007 299 1,744,349
Calendar Year 2006 01/01/2006 31/12/2006 393 2,311,937

The number of Practices contributing data to a given time period varies as the data were collected from Practices during different seasons and years. This is why fewer or more patients are found for similar time periods. The table below shows the number of Practices from the combined dataset with complete data recorded up to the given season.

Season Practices
Spring 2007 393
Autumn 2007 336
Spring 2008 299
Autumn 2008 267
Spring 2009 244
Autumn 2009 220
Spring 2010 194
Autumn 2010 139
Spring 2011 87
Accessing the Data

The PCCIUR team welcomes funded applications from individuals and organisations to use PCCIUR data for research purposes.    

Application for Data

Please email researchapps@abdn.ac.uk in the first instance to discuss your research proposal. This will enable a quick assessment of whether our database is suitable to meet your needs.

A protocol should be completed and submitted according to the submission process.  A standard approach is used for the submission of all protocols for the use of PCCIUR data (including internal submissions from within the University of Aberdeen) and all applications undergo the same peer review process.

It normally takes between 3-4 months from submission of a protocol until the data are released for analysis.

Costs for accessing data

A cost assessment is undertaken for each protocol submitted for use of PCCIUR data.  These costs are to recover staff costs incurred with the development, preparation and supply of data.  These costs include a small administrative charge and are subject to VAT.

Protocols submitted by applicants within the University of Aberdeen are also subject to the same costs as those from external applicants, except that no VAT will be charged. 

Data will not be released to applicants until the University of Aberdeen has received appropriate payment.

Governance

All researchers wishing to use PCCIU data should first contact PCCIU to discuss their proposal and then afterwards complete a protocol and submit it. For more information, visit the Accessing the Data page.

PCCIUR Steering Group

The PCCIUR Steering Group was re-established in 2009 to ensure that procedures and protocols are put in place for good working practice and appropriate usage/dissemination of PCCIUR data. 

Remit and Composition of the Steering Group

  • Providing general direction/support for the academic use of PCCIU-held datasets.
  • Assisting in prioritisation of research activities related to databases.
  • Assisting with development of formal structures for accessing datasets by researchers.
  • Ensuring governance procedures are in place to meet current legislation.
  • Providing a forum for stakeholders to feedback information to/from their respective groups for optimum use of PCCIU-held data.

Steering Group Members

  • Prof Phil Hannaford (Chair), Vice-Principal for Research and Knowledge Exchange, University of Aberdeen
  • Dr Alison Hinds, Scottish School of Primary Care, Research Manager, University of Dundee
  • Ms Katie Wilde, Head of Digital Research, University of Aberdeen
  • Dr Chris Burton, PCCIUR Research Co-ordinator, University of Aberdeen
  • Prof Peter Helms, Consultant Paediatrician, Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital
  • Dr Colin Fischbacher, Consultant in Public Health Medicine, NHS Information and Statistics Division
  • Prof Sir Lewis Ritchie, James Mackenzie Professor of General Practice, University of Aberdeen
  • Dr Dorothy Moir, Consultant Public Health Medicine, University of Aberdeen/ NHS Grampian
Acknowledgements

Please include the slide below with any documentation or presentation which refers to PCCIUR data.

PCCIU slide

Download the slide in Powerpoint by clicking this link... PCCIUR Acknowledgement Slide.

Glossary

Glossary items in italics are no longer active.

CHI Community Health Index
CHP Community Health Partnership
CLSM College of Life Sciences & Medicine, University of Aberdeen
ITS IT Services, University of Aberdeen
RADMT Research Applications and Data Management Team, University of Aberdeen
EMIS Egton Medical Information Systems
GPASS General Practice Administration System for Scotland
ISD Information Services Division of National Services Scotland
PCCIUR PCCIU Research, University of Aberdeen
PTI Practice Team Information
QIS Quality Improvement Scotland
QOF Quality and Outcomes Framework
Read Codes Read Codes are a coded thesaurus of clinical terms
RCGP Scotland Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland
SIGN Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network
SPICEpc Scottish Programme for Improving Clinical Effectiveness in Primary Care
CMR Continuous Morbidity Recording
GDEP GPASS Data Evaluation Project
PAT Practice Analysis Tool
PCCIU Primary Care Clinical Informatics Unit, University of Aberdeen
PRU Practice Report Utility

General Enquiries

Katie Wilde (Research Manager)
Tel: 01224 437042
Email: digitalresearch@abdn.ac.uk

Payment Enquiries

Mr Derek Turner (Business Manager)
Tel: 01224 437253
digitalresearch@abdn.ac.uk