Infections in Oxfordshire: a Research Database (IORD) version 4.0
Research type
Research Database
IRAS ID
339234
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
24/SC/0241
Date of REC Opinion
5 Sep 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion
Data collection arrangements
IORD is a collection of computer records from people going to the main hospitals or GPs in Oxfordshire. It has information from two places.
• The Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Clinical Data Warehouse. This is an NHS database which contains information on
- Whether people stayed in hospital and what happened during this time; visits to outpatient clinics and A&E; test results from blood tests and other samples (like pus from a wound).
- Which GP practice people go to, and which part of Oxfordshire they live in (the first part of their postcode, before the space)
- Some basic information about people, like their sex, ethnicity and the month and year they were born. But it doesn’t have exact dates people were born.
- If someone passed away, when this happened
• Data from really in-depth studies about tiny things called microbes or germs that can make people sick. Researchers study these microbes to figure out which ones cause different infections and how they're connected to other microbes we've found in Oxfordshire.IORD has information about a large number of people, more than a million, and it covers a really long time, over 25 years.
Research programme
IORD supports researchers who want to use data to learn more about infections – how to manage and treat them better and reduce their effect on people. Researchers have to write a plan explaining what they want to do. The plan needs to say exactly what specific information they need, and who they need this information from, to answer their question. These plans are checked by a team including people from the hospitals and GPs who don’t have anything to do with IORD, and members of the public. This group of experts and everyday people think about: • Who is the researcher, and are they for real? We want to make sure they're from a trustworthy organization and have the right expertise. • Is the question they're asking important and connected to infections? • Does their plan make sense? We need to be sure the way they want to answer their question is right. • Are the people they want information from, and the specific pieces of information they're asking for, related to the question they're trying to answer? Every person's data and every piece of information they ask for should be used in their research. If the group agrees, then the researcher only gets the data they need to answer their questions.
Research database title
Infections in Oxfordshire: a Research Database (IORD)
Establishment organisation
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Establishment organisation address
John Radcliffe Hospital
Headley Way
Oxford
OX3 9DU