Curated assets are harmonised, well-documented, reusable tables, code components, and data preparation approaches developed to support efficient and reproducible cardiovascular research.
Many research projects require the same preparation steps: identifying relevant source data, joining datasets, applying consistent derivation rules, performing quality checks, and creating analysis-ready variables. Curated assets allow this work to be developed once and reused across multiple projects, reducing duplication, improving consistency, and helping researchers start analysis faster.
Our curated assets are developed in collaboration with research teams, clinicians, data custodians, and programme partners and are driven by identified research community needs.
Examples of assets we can support you to reuse
Demographics
A harmonised table of core demographic variables for use across research projects.
The asset combines information from multiple linked datasets and applies consistent selection rules to identify the most appropriate value for each characteristic for every individual.
Variables include month and year of birth, sex, ethnicity, deprivation, geographic region and date of death.
COVID-19 positive cohort
Standardised cohort definitions and supporting code to identify individuals with evidence of COVID-19 infection in linked health data.
Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care (HES APC) diagnoses
Reusable approaches for extracting and transforming hospital diagnosis information from Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care data.
HES APC procedures
Standardised approaches for identifying and preparing hospital procedure information for research analyses.
Mortality data
Harmonised mortality variables and derivation approaches to support cardiovascular outcome studies.
Documentation and reusable code
Resources
Where appropriate, documentation and reusable code components are shared through public repositories. These resources may include:
- README documentation
- methodology descriptions
- variable definitions
- version-controlled code
- guidance for adaptation and reuse
Examples of publicly available documentation and code include curated assets developed through the CVD-COVID-UK / COVID-IMPACT programme.
Developing new curated assets
Potential opportunities
We continue to develop curated assets in response to the needs of the cardiovascular research community, including exploring:
- commonly used demographic or clinical variables
- standardised outcome definitions
- reusable covariate derivations
- harmonised approaches across multiple datasets
- data preparation approaches that would benefit multiple research projects
If there are data preparation challenges that you think could be addressed through a reusable asset, we would like to hear from you.
Our curated assets are designed to be:
Reusable
Developed for use across multiple research projects.
Transparent and reproducible
Supported by clear definitions, documented methods and version-controlled code so that data preparation decisions can be understood, reviewed and repeated.
Fit for purpose
Developed with researchers, clinicians, data custodians and programme partners to address identified research needs and produce practical, analysis-ready resources.
Adaptable
Designed to be adapted to different datasets, research questions and secure environments where appropriate.
Benefits of using our curated assets include:
- Improved completeness by combining information from multiple sources
- Consistent variable definitions across studies
- Improved comparability between research projects
- Reduced time spent preparing commonly used variables, cohorts and data structures
Interested in reusing or developing a curated asset?
Contact our team to discuss available curated assets, reusing an asset within your research project, adapting an existing asset to your data environment, or developing a new reusable resource.
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