Primary Care Clinical Informatics Unit Research

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.

• Professor Phil Hannaford, Chair
• Katie Wilde, Research Applications Manager
• Alasdair Coutts, Analyst
• Artur Wozniak, Analyst
• Alastair Soutar, Analyst

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

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).

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.

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.

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.

This Template Protocol should be completed and submitted according to the Process Flowchart.  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.

• Process Flowchart
• Example of a Best Practice Protocol
• Template Protocol

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.

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

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

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

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