Wellcome Open Research (Dec 2021)
A comprehensive high cost drugs dataset from the NHS in England - An OpenSAFELY-TPP Short Data Report [version 1; peer review: 3 approved]
- James Galloway,
- Richard Croker,
- Tom Ward,
- Nicholas A Kennedy,
- Anna Schultze,
- David Evans,
- Katie Bechman,
- Frank Hester,
- Kathryn E Mansfield,
- John Parry,
- Mark Yates,
- Julian Matthewman,
- Sam Harper,
- Sam Norton,
- Liam Smeeth,
- Jeremy Brown,
- Caroline E. Morton,
- Alex J. Walker,
- Elizabeth Williamson,
- Christopher T. Rentsch,
- Amelia Green,
- George Hickman,
- Helen J Curtis,
- Louis Fisher,
- Helen I. McDonald,
- Rosalind M. Eggo,
- Ian J Douglas,
- Angel YS Wong,
- Charlie W Lees,
- Laurie A Tomlinson,
- Catherine Smith,
- Stephen Evans,
- Amir Mehkar,
- Sinéad M. Langan,
- Brian MacKenna,
- Krishnan Bhaskaran,
- John Tazare,
- Chris Bates,
- Peter Inglesby,
- Ben Goldacre,
- Jonathan Cockburn,
- Seb Bacon,
- Rohini Mathur,
- William Hulme,
- Harriet Forbes,
- Simon Davy,
- Anna Rowan
Affiliations
- James Galloway
- Centre of Rheumatic Diseases, King's College London, London, UK
- Richard Croker
- ORCiD
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Tom Ward
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Nicholas A Kennedy
- ORCiD
- Department of Gastroenterology, Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, Exeter, UK
- Anna Schultze
- ORCiD
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- David Evans
- ORCiD
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Katie Bechman
- Centre of Rheumatic Diseases, King's College London, London, UK
- Frank Hester
- TPP, 129 Low Lane, Horsforth, Leeds, LS18 5PX, UK
- Kathryn E Mansfield
- ORCiD
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- John Parry
- ORCiD
- TPP, 129 Low Lane, Horsforth, Leeds, LS18 5PX, UK
- Mark Yates
- Centre of Rheumatic Diseases, King's College London, London, UK
- Julian Matthewman
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Sam Harper
- TPP, 129 Low Lane, Horsforth, Leeds, LS18 5PX, UK
- Sam Norton
- TPP, 129 Low Lane, Horsforth, Leeds, LS18 5PX, UK
- Liam Smeeth
- ORCiD
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Jeremy Brown
- Centre of Rheumatic Diseases, King's College London, London, UK
- Caroline E. Morton
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Alex J. Walker
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Elizabeth Williamson
- ORCiD
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Christopher T. Rentsch
- ORCiD
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Amelia Green
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- George Hickman
- ORCiD
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Helen J Curtis
- ORCiD
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Louis Fisher
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Helen I. McDonald
- ORCiD
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Rosalind M. Eggo
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Ian J Douglas
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Angel YS Wong
- ORCiD
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Charlie W Lees
- Centre for Genomics and Experimental Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Laurie A Tomlinson
- ORCiD
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Catherine Smith
- ORCiD
- St John's Institute of Dermatology, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, SE1 9RT, UK
- Stephen Evans
- ORCiD
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Amir Mehkar
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Sinéad M. Langan
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Brian MacKenna
- ORCiD
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Krishnan Bhaskaran
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- John Tazare
- ORCiD
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Chris Bates
- TPP, 129 Low Lane, Horsforth, Leeds, LS18 5PX, UK
- Peter Inglesby
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Ben Goldacre
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Jonathan Cockburn
- TPP, 129 Low Lane, Horsforth, Leeds, LS18 5PX, UK
- Seb Bacon
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Rohini Mathur
- ORCiD
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- William Hulme
- ORCiD
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Harriet Forbes
- Electronic Health Records Research Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
- Simon Davy
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Anna Rowan
- The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 6
Abstract
Background: At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no routine comprehensive hospital medicines data from the UK available to researchers. These records can be important for many analyses including the effect of certain medicines on the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. With the approval of NHS England, we set out to obtain data on one specific group of medicines, “high-cost drugs” (HCD) which are typically specialist medicines for the management of long-term conditions, prescribed by hospitals to patients. Additionally, we aimed to make these data available to all approved researchers in OpenSAFELY-TPP. This report is intended to support all studies carried out in OpenSAFELY-TPP, and those elsewhere, working with this dataset or similar data. Methods: Working with the North East Commissioning Support Unit and NHS Digital, we arranged for collation of a single national HCD dataset to help inform responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The dataset was developed from payment submissions from hospitals to commissioners. Results: In the financial year (FY) 2018/19 there were 2.8 million submissions for 1.1 million unique patient IDs recorded in the HCD. The average number of submissions per patient over the year was 2.6. In FY 2019/20 there were 4.0 million submissions for 1.3 million unique patient IDs. The average number of submissions per patient over the year was 3.1. Of the 21 variables in the dataset, three are now available for analysis in OpenSafely-TPP: Financial year and month of drug being dispensed; drug name; and a description of the drug dispensed. Conclusions: We have described the process for sourcing a national HCD dataset, making these data available for COVID-19-related analysis through OpenSAFELY-TPP and provided information on the variables included in the dataset, data coverage and an initial descriptive analysis.
