Infections in Oxfordshire: a Research Database (IORD) version 3.0
Research type
Research Database
IRAS ID
261853
Contact name
Ann Sarah Walker
Contact email
Research summary
Infections in Oxfordshire: a Research Database (IORD)
REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/SC/0403
Date of REC Opinion
7 Oct 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion
Data collection arrangements
IORD is an anonymised extract from a datawarehouse maintained by the Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Trust. This existing NHS datawarehouse, held within the NHS firewall, links data from standalone Trust electronic databases in order to monitor patient safety and improve patient management. Systems linked are patient administration records, including the current OUH Electronic Patient Record (hospital admissions, ward movements, diagnoses/procedures, outpatient and “A&E” attendances), pathology (microbiology, virology, laboratory, histopathology), clinical assessments (including routine measurements and imaging, risk factors for infection (e.g. use of invasive devices, wounds), clinical reviews), electronic prescribing, interactions with healthcare services outside of secondary care, the maternity database, and infection control databases (details of outbreaks and infection surveillance). The vast majority of this data is routinely collected electronically; the only exception is information collected on infectious disease outbreaks/surveillance by NHS infection control staff. Research data on microbial organisms generated on an ongoing basis through the Antimicrobial Resistance and Modernising Microbiology Theme of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre are also linked to this data warehouse via laboratory sample numbers, also within the NHS firewall. All patient identifiers (name,hospital/NHS numbers) are removed before data are sent from the NHS datawarehouse to IORD, again within the NHS firewall.
Research programme
The primary goal of the "Infections in Oxfordshire Research Database" (IORD) is therefore to use increasingly rich anonymised linked routinely recorded electronic data on hospital administration records (e.g. admission/discharge, ward movement, consultant episodes, diagnostic and procedure codes, demographics and mortality, theatre admissions), electronic medical records (e.g. vital signs, prescriptions), pathology (microbiology, virology, laboratory, histopathology) tests and radiology and other imaging data (e.g. echocardiography results) to prospectively investigate predictors of and trends in incidence of, severity of presentation of, and adverse outcomes following infection (ascertained through microbial isolation or using clinical definitions) and infection-associated syndromes (e.g. pneumonia, sepsis) within Oxfordshire from 1998. This also includes investigation of incidence of and outcomes following infection in populations particularly at risk of infections, including, for example, those with cancer or chronic kidney disease. The overarching aim is for IORD findings to improve the management of infection in UK hospitals. The secondary goal is to use these data together with those from detailed studies (e.g. phenotypic/genotypic strain typing, diagnostics) undertaken within the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford, to further elucidate mechanisms of changing microbial virulence at the population level.
Research database title
Infections in Oxfordshire: a Research Database (IORD)
Establishment organisation
Oxford University Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust
Establishment organisation address
John Radcliffe Hospital
Headley Way Oxford
OX3 9DU