Using routinely collected general practice data to improve the quality of chronic disease management, for health service planning, and research

S. de Lusignan, B. Dzregah, N. Hague, J van Vlymen.
Primary Care Informatics, Department of Community Health Sciences, St. George's Hospital Medical School , LONDON , SW17 0RE

Abstract:
UK general practice is computerised, and quality targets based on computer data provide a further incentive to improve data quality. A National Programme for Information Technology is standardising the technical infrastructure and removing some of the barriers to data aggregation. Routinely collected data is an underused resource and we report the lessons from over a decade of working with general practice data. Our method involves the design of fully documented programmes which provide clinically relevant feedback to clinicians; and overview statistics to localities and researchers. The design steps cover: data entry issues, extraction, migration, integration of data from different sources, cleaning and analysis. Results are presented which illustrate: issues with the population denominator, data entry problems, identification of people with unmet need, and how the routine data can be used for the real world testing of pharmaceuticals. Routinely collected primary care data could contribute more to the process of health improvement.

Keywords: Medical informatics, Primary care, Terminology, Medical records systems computerized, Quality indicators healthcare.