When doctoral researcher Justin Braver set out to study cardiac rehabilitation after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), he had limited experience accessing and curating large-scale linked health data. His tight deadline also meant he needed to understand quickly whether the right data was available to make his study viable.
The BHF Data Science Centre provided practical support at every point in his research journey. Our team confirmed that relevant linked NHS data were available, streamlined access through the CVD-COVID-UK programme, coordinated patient and public involvement and scientific review, and curated data across five datasets to create an analysis-ready dataset in around two weeks. Without our support, this process can typically take many months.
Justin said:
“As a public health researcher visiting from Australia, working with the BHF Data Science Centre has been a career highlight. Their world-class technical support comes with real passion and a collaborative spirit that lifts the whole team.
“With their support and access to linked electronic health records covering the entire population of England, we’re leading one of the largest studies of its kind investigating cardiac rehab after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) —a vital but under-researched area. We’re uncovering how secondary prevention rehab affects outcomes in older, vulnerable patients, especially considering the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This experience has strengthened my skills in working with big data and it has been energising to learn from a team that is setting the standard for real-world evidence generation and large-scale epidemiological research.”
Justin has now published his whole-population study of nearly 25,000 TAVI recipients in England. The research found that fewer than one in 20 patients attended cardiac rehabilitation, that participation temporarily fell during the first COVID-19 lockdown, and that rehabilitation was linked with a lower risk of all-cause and non-cardiovascular rehospitalisation.
For researchers, this project demonstrates the value of expert data access, curation and governance support in accelerating high-quality cardiovascular research. For patients and the public, it shows how trusted use of national health data can quickly generate evidence about services that can support recovery and reduce avoidable hospital readmissions.
Explore how our services can help researchers access, curate and use linked health data to answer important cardiovascular research questions.