General Practice Research Database

The General Practice Research Database (GPRD) is a large database of anonymised medical records from GP practices around the UK. The database is considered by many to be the 'gold standard' of longitudinal anonymised patient databases from primary care [ [http://www.gprd.com/whygprd GPRD: Why GPRD?] ] . It has been used in over 500 clinical reviews and papers. The GPRD is the world's largest computerised database of anonymised patient data from general practice [ [http://www.info.doh.gov.uk/doh/iar.nsf/0/80256F4F0030DD2180256EC1003BA220?OpenDocument Department of Health] ] [ [http://www.gprd.com/ GPRD] ] .

History

The GPRD was initially developed by an Essex general practitioner, Dr Alan Dean, to facilitate day-to-day management of his own general practice. [cite web
url= http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/91/6/445.pdf
title= The General Practice Research Database
accessdate=
accessdaymonth=
accessmonthday=
accessyear=
author= Lawson, D. H.
authorlink=
coauthors= Sherman V. & Hollowell, J.
year= 1998
month=
format= PDF
work= QJM: An International Journal of Medicine
publisher= Oxford University Press
pages= pp. 445-452] This was so successful that a venture capital company was set up in 1987 named Value Added Information Medical Products Ltd (VAMP) to recruit other practices and form an information base.

In November 1993, its parent company was acquired by Reuters Health Information, which donated the database to the Department of Health in 1994, at which time it acquired its current name. Then the database was operated by the Office for National Statistics until 1999, at which point the Medicines Control Agency (MCA) took over. This agency became the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on 01 April 2003 following a merger with the Medical Devices Agency (MDA). Since then, use of the database has expanded within the UK and overseas. The GPRD is now a sub-division of the MHRA. [ [http://www.gprd.com/whygprd/history.asp GPRD: History] ] [cite web
url= http://www.primis.nhs.uk/informatics/sep96/sep3.htm
title= Building a research database from computerised general practice records
accessdate=
accessdaymonth=
accessmonthday=
accessyear=
author= Tyrer, F.
authorlink=
coauthors= Hambleton, I.; Lawrenson, R.; M Pierce, M.
year= 1996
month= September
work= Journal of Informatics in Primary Care
publisher= ]

In 2007, GPRD announced a strategic alliance with IMS Health, which incorporates GPRD and the IMS Disease Analyzer, resulting in the most comprehensive longitudinal anonymized patient-level data in Europe. Together, these two resources encompass medical treatment information for nearly 20 million anonymised patient lives. The combined expertise of GPRD and IMS enable pharmaceutical and biotech companies, as well as governments, payers, providers and the financial and healthcare supply sectors, to make critical decisions about the impact of medicines in clinical practice across different healthcare systems.

The head of research is Dr Tjeerd-Pieter van Staa, a pharmacoepidemiologist who is also affiliated to the Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Information collected

The following information is collected from participanting GP surgeries in the United Kingdom. The data is anonymised at the point of collection to protect the privacy of the individuals from whom the data comes.

* Demographics (including age and sex)
* Medical symptoms, signs and diagnoses
* Therapy (medicines, vaccines, devices)
* Treatment outcomes
* Events leading to withdrawal of a drug or treatment
* Referrals to hospitals or specialists
* Laboratory tests, pathology results
* Lifestyle factors (height, weight, BMI, smoking and alcohol consumption)
* Socioeconomic status
* Patient registration, practice and consultation details

ee also

* Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

References

External links

* [http://www.gprd.com/ GPRD Homepage]