Clinical Effectiveness Group
UNIT LEAD John Robson
The Clinical Effectiveness Group (CEG) uses primary care health data for research, with a focus on reducing health inequalities and improving population health. Our academics, primary care clinicians, health data scientists, analysts and primary care facilitators turn knowledge into action which improves clinical care. Our work involves interdisciplinary teams, and includes the perspectives of patients, and health care professionals, and values team science. We are founding partners of the Discovery Data Service, which integrates data from GPs, hospitals, and community settings in near real-time.
Our research is supported by major funders, including Barts Charity programme grants: ‘REAL Health - Research Enabled Learning Health Systems’ and ‘Precision Medicine’. These use health data for research to improve equitable disease prevention and treatment. We lead the Wellcome Trust PhD in science programme ‘Health Data in Practice’ and are members of the NIHR School of Primary Care Research. We lead the Wolfson Institute Digital and Health Data Science theme. More information about our work is available here.
- CEG brings research and NHS partners together, builds capacity in health data science through national and local collaborations, and develops future leaders through doctoral and other postgraduate training.
- Wellcome Trust Health Data in Practice Our doctoral training programme applies human-centred data research to health and care data, drawing on concepts, disciplines and methods underpinning qualitative and quantitative evaluation and decision-making in real-world settings.
- Health data informatics and tools Our dashboards visualise health data from across the North East London Integrated Care System – covering 2.2 million patients - informing our research and providing valuable insight for NHS primary care commissioners and the region’s eight local authorities. Our data-driven searches, smart templates and pop-up alerts are used by 272 GP practices to improve direct patient care and make it easier to implement new programmes and meet targets.
- Innovative data linkage We develop algorithms and innovative methods to link primary care data to other sources – including genetic research, the national cancer registries, geospatial information and school records on height and weight – to build a deeper understanding of population health.
- Precision Medicine A major new research programme in collaboration with Barts Cancer Institute to use electronic patient records and linked information, derived from disease registers, tissue samples and imaging, to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of long-term conditions including cancers.
- Reducing delay and inequalities in childhood immunisations We are researching inequalities in immunisation uptake, using geospatial data to map hotspots of infection susceptibility, and developing in-practice software that uses electronic health records to identify children, efficiently and equitably, for routine vaccinations.
- Improving cardiovascular, respiratory and child health through research analyses of linked electronic health records and innovative decision support tools for GP practices across North East London.