Unlocking the research potential of the GP electronic care record.

The electronic records of patients registered with UK NHS general practices contain a wealth of data and have the potential to make a major contribution to medical science.1,2 Representing over 95% of the entire population and often spanning several decades of an individual’s life, they include a summary of key health events and a detailed record of activities relating to prevention, prescribing, and investigation. The use of GP records for research is not new. The General Practice Research Database (GPRD) has for more than 20 years provided high quality routine data from practices covering approximately 8% of the UK population, and other similar resources such as QResearch® and The Health Improvement Network have extended this to around 20% of the population. The potential extension of coverage to a much larger proportion of the population should bring major rewards in terms of the representativeness of the data and the ability comprehensively to identify patients with specific clinical characteristics, including those with rare conditions. It will also offer major improvements in the monitoring of new medications. The Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) was launched in April 2012 with a remit to extend coverage to the entire UK population and to add additional services for record linkage and embedded clinical trials.3 Hosted by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and jointly funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the CPRD benefits from extensive expertise developed through …