The NIHR have produced an information sheet for GPs regarding their Framework for Restart. Please find information sheet here.
Please find our top tips for GPs to support vaccine research here.
NHS Digital are now providing researchers with a rich source of patient-level data from about 98% of GP Practices in England to help with the response to COVID-19.
This GP data can be linked with data with other care settings and data sources as required, and is already being used to support UK vaccine trials, including the Oxford RECOVERY trial, and British Heart Foundation research. Details on the dataset and an analytical guide for analysts and users of the data is available on their website.
This service is available to support COVID-19 planning and research purposes only, for clinicians, researchers, academics and commissioners.
You can request access to the data by filling in the Access Request Form for GPES Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19) and sent it to agem.covid-19datasharing@nhs.net. If your request is approved you will then complete the Data Access Request Service (DARS) online process in the normal way.
There's less than 100 days until Christmas and we find there is a natural peak of applications for our Data Access Request Service (DARS) when there are fewer NHS Digital staff available to support your application during the festive break.
Please take this into consideration when planning and submitting applications for data, including the new data sets outlined above.
There will be a national GP data extraction exercise on a fortnightly basis to support COVID-19 planning including research.
All requests to access this data will be triaged through an NHSX Single Point of Access COVID-19 request process.
Use of data for research purposes will require Research Ethics Committee approval.
This will significantly reduce the burden on General Practice of multiple COVID-19 data requests and is supported by the RCGP and BMA.
The full notice is available here: https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/corporate-information-and-documents/directions-and-data-provision-notices/data-provision-notices-dpns/gpes-data-for-pandemic-planning-and-research
If you recall, supporting research is one of the key COVID-19 objectives from Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer, to provide reliable evidence on treatments for this infection. Important results will be disseminated rapidly to improve practice.
As yet, there are no proven treatments for COVID-19. The NIHR Clinical Research Network are prioritising the most promising studies across the whole disease spectrum, and are working to expedite provision of support to deliver them.
Recruitment to trials will be quite competitive so we would love to hear from you if you would like to get involved, the NIHR Clinical Research Network can support you.
Please contact Helen Jung helen.jung@nihr.ac.uk and Viv Shaw v.shaw@nhs.net for further information.
All Covid-19 trials will be run as simply as possible to reduce the burden on care provision. We are waiting for final confirmation, but it is looking like the following study is on the horizon:
PRINCIPLE (higher risk patients in primary care trial). www.principletrial.org. The study aims to find out whether selected treatments given to those at higher risk of becoming more ill when they are infected with COVID-19 helps reduce the need for hospitalisation, helps people recover quicker and get fewer complications.
Any treatment given for coronavirus other than general supportive care, treatment for underlying conditions, and antibiotics for secondary bacterial complications, should currently be as part of a trial, where that is possible.
Our colleagues in the Norfolk and Waveney R&D office have put together a very useful FAQs for GPs
Topics include getting involved in COVID-19 studies and learning more about national and local COVID research studies already underway
Click here for more information
We would like to draw your attention the letter from the Secretary of State invoking his powers on data sharing during the pandemic, we understand it was sent out to all practices.
The notice is in place to 30th September 2020 until and unless reviewed.
The notice in short requires data sharing (including patient identifiable data) between health organisations and organisations providing surveillance of the disease, supporting public health, providing healthcare and monitoring and managing the outbreak, including approved research.
This data sharing is only for the “Covid-19 purposes” listed in the letter, which includes understanding the Covid-19 outbreak through research, as well as treatment and monitoring.
What practices are expected to do: if other health services, public health or researchers, contact a practice with any data requests relating to Covid-19, they should review and respond quickly to these requests, ensuring the request is a legitimate Covid-19 related data request, ensuring the requestor are part of a legitimate organisation, ensuring the means of data transfer is secure (use of nhs.net email addresses is preferred) and minimising the data sent. A practice should ask what the minimum data is, that will fulfil the request, and the purpose for requesting the data. Sharing of data is important for dealing with this outbreak. You should also keep records of all data processed under this notice.
It is only permitted to share (process) this data for the purposes of Covid-19. The data should still be kept and sent securely and minimised as much as possible (e.g. anonymised where possible, or the minimal information provided). It is important to note the requirement that you must not allow any person access to that information other than a person who, by virtue of his contract of employment or otherwise, is involved in processing the information for one or more of those purposes and is aware of the purpose or purposes for which the information may be processed.
This complies with GDPR as it complies with articles 6 and 9 to provide for care of patients and public health.
The Department of Health and Social Care has also issued a similar update to all NHS trusts, NHS England/Improvement and NHS Digital.
The following link is a Facebook group created for doctors working on COVID-19 (English version)
Please be advised that although these are expert opinions, these are not peer reviewed
https://www.facebook.com/groups/novelcoronavirusdoctorsonly/