There are currently a number of developments in the UK and elsewhere to create linked electronic patient records systems to support the delivery and management of health. In England this development is being managed by Connecting for Health and is the largest non-military IT-programme in the world.  Data collected routinely as part of patient care, and now increasingly stored electronically, has added value for secondary uses such as research including surveillance of health, understanding effectiveness of interventions and knowledge of public health impacts on provision and use of healthcare services.

The ambitious Connecting for Health programme clearly presents an important opportunity for health and social care research. The UKCRC is engaged in a programme of work with Connecting for Health to capture the issues of importance to the research community and ensure that these are fed into developments of the new Care Records Service.

As a first step, a series of simulation projects are underway to help identify the technical, operational and governance issues that would need to be addressed to enable the Care Records Service to facilitate high quality research. The simulations are focusing on the following research applications:

• Cohort (prospective) tracking
• Surveillance (Pharmacovigilance)
• Observational epidemiology
• Interventional Clinical Trials

In an open letter from the Chair of the UKCRC R&D Advisory Group to Connecting for Health, Professor Ian Diamond has outlined the progress so far. 

Further information about this UKCRC/Connecting for Health programme of work and opportunities to engage can be found in the e_Health section.