This programme demonstrated how routinely collected NHS health data can help clinical trials run more efficiently, recruit a wider range of people, and build better evidence for patient care.
Scientific leadership: Professor Matt Sydes
About this work
Routine collected NHS health data has the potential to transform the way clinical trials are planned and run. Working with trialists, clinicians and data scientists, this programme developed tools, resources, and infrastructure to explore how NHS data could make participant recruitment more efficient, diverse, and representative, reduce administrative work for both researchers and participants, and generate high-quality real-world evidence for cardiovascular health and care.
These advances helped to highlight how more efficient trials can accelerate the journey from research ideas into real benefits for patients.
What this programme delivered
Helped researchers navigate health data for trials
We provided practical guidance on how to access, use, and interpret NHS health data in cardiovascular trials.
Data resources for clinical trials
Report: How to facilitate the use of healthcare systems data in trials
We also developed a Data Utility Comparison (DUCk) study – a Study Within A Trial (SWAT) – to assess how well routinely collected NHS data performed compared to traditional trial data collection.
In collaboration with HDR UK, the Transforming Data for Trials programme also worked to transform access to, and the utility, analysis and understanding of healthcare systems data to enable its use in clinical trials – providing research teams with the same reliable outcomes with less effort and reduced costs.
Developed consistent and clinically agreed data-based outcomes for trials
Consistent and clinically agreed phenotypes and outcomes are critical when planning, running, and interpreting findings from clinical trials.
The SCORE-CVD (Standardising Clinical Outcome measures in Routinely collected Electronic healthcare systems data) project brought together clinical experts, triallists, health data scientists, and public contributors to standardise trial outcome measures by defining consistent, high-quality trial outcome measures using NHS health data.
Priority outcomes included:
- Heart attack (Myocardial Infarction)
- Stroke
- Cardiovascular death
- Heart failure
- Major bleeding