Yorkshire firm wins prestigious award for Covid vaccine work

Using QResearch, a database of over 35 million anonymised health records derived from GP practices using the Emis clinical computer system, researchers at the University of Oxford and the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) developed a population-wide risk assessment model called QCovid.

QCovid was used by NHS Digital to predict on a population basis whether adults with a combination of risk factors may be at more serious risk from Covid-19 and should be prioritised for vaccination.

As a result, 1.5 million high risk individuals were identified, added to the Shielded Patient List as a precautionary measure and prioritised for earlier vaccination. The research also played a vital role in raising public awareness of key Covid-19 risk factors.

The research was commissioned by England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty and funded by the National Institute of Health Research.

It found that there are several health and personal factors which, when combined, could mean someone is at a higher risk from Covid-19. These include characteristics like age, ethnicity and body mass index, as well as certain medical conditions and treatments.

The John Perry Prize, awarded by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, rewards those who have made an outstanding contribution to innovation and excellence within primary care computing and informatics.

Professor Julia Hippisley-Cox, professor of clinical epidemiology and general practice at the University of Oxford, said: “Identifying patients at highest risk for interventions quickly in a pandemic at national scale is not something any of us were expecting to have to do.

"So, we are very grateful to the many hundreds of GP practices who contribute anonymised data to QResearch and to fantastic support from Oxford, Emis, the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS Digital, National Institute for Health Research, our patient advisers and many academic collaborators, which made this possible.”

Dr Shaun O’Hanlon, chief medical officer at Leeds-based Emis, said: “Emis is incredibly proud to have supported this important piece of research, which continues to enable the NHS to protect more vulnerable people, more quickly, from Covid-19.

“This is the latest in a long list of research projects that has been powered by real-life data collected from thousands of GP consultations every day.

"We are thankful to the GP practices that have supported QResearch over the last 15 years - without them this important initiative would not be available to help improve the health of the nation.”