Search

BACKGROUND Innovation in seasonal influenza vaccine development has resulted in a wider range of formulations becoming available. Understanding vaccine coverage across populations including the timing of administration is important when evaluating vaccine benefit-risk. OBJECTIVE We carried out this study to report the representativeness of the English primary care sentinel cohort (PCSC), the uptake of influenza vaccines, and the different formulations of influenza vaccine and timing of administration within this cohort. METHODS We used the PCSC of the Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC). We included patients of all ages registered with PCSC member general practices, reporting influenza vaccine coverage between September 1, 2019, and January 29, 2020. We identified influenza vaccination recipients and characterized them by age, clinical risk groups, and vaccine type. We reported date of influenza vaccination within the PCSC by International Standards Organization (ISO) week. The representativeness of the PCSC population was compared with population data provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). PCSC influenza vaccine coverage was compared with published UK Health Security Agency’s national data. We used paired t-tests to compare populations, reported with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). RESULTS The PCSC comprised 7,010,627 people from 693 general practices. The study population included a greater proportion of people aged 18-49 years (42.5% [95% CI 42.5%–42.6%]) compared to the ONS 2019 mid-year population estimates (41.3% [4.12%–41.3%]; P CONCLUSIONS The PCSC’s sociodemographic profile was similar to the national population and captured more data about risk groups, vaccine brand, and batch. This may reflect higher data quality. Its capabilities included reporting precise date of administration. The PCSC is suitable for undertaking studies of influenza vaccine coverage. CLINICALTRIAL This study was classified as a service evaluation (measuring what standard of care this service achieved) by the Medical Research Council/Health Research Authority decision tool [38], so did not require formal ethical approval. It was approved by the RCGP Approval Committee on January 8, 2021.

BACKGROUND The Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) is one of Europe’s oldest sentinel systems, working with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and its predecessor bodies for 55 years. Its surveillance report now runs twice weekly, supplemented by online observatories. In addition to conducting sentinel surveillance from a nationally representative group of practices, the RSC is now also providing data for syndromic surveillance. OBJECTIVE Describe the cohort profile at the start of the 2021-2022 surveillance season and changes to our surveillance practice. METHODS The RSC’s pseudonymised primary care data, linked to hospital and other data, are held in the Oxford-RCGP Clinical Informatics Digital Hub (ORCHID), a trusted research environment (TRE). We describe the RSC’s cohort profile as of September 2021, divided into a primary care sentinel cohort (PCSC) - collecting virological and serological specimens - and a larger group of syndromic surveillance general practices (SSGP). We report changes to our sampling strategy that brings the RSC into alignment with European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) guidance and then compare our cohort sociodemographic characteristics with Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. We describe influenza and COVID-19 vaccine coverage for the 2020-21 season (week 40, 2020 to week 39 2021), the latter differentiated by vaccine brand. Finally, we report COVID-19 related outcomes in terms of hospitalisation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and death. RESULTS As a response to COVID-19, RSC grew from just over 500 PCSC practices in 2019 to 1,879 practices (PCSC=938, SSGP=1,203). This represents 28.6% of English general practices and 31% of the population (N=17,560,196). In the reporting period, the PCSC collected >8,000 virology and >23,000 samples. The RSC population was found to be broadly representative of the national population in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, NHS Region, socioeconomic status, obesity and smoking habit. The RSC captured vaccine coverage data for influenza (n=5.4m), and COVID-19; reporting dose one, (n=11.9m), two (n=11m) and three (n=0.4m) for the latter as well as brand-specific uptake data (AstraZeneca vaccine [n=11.6m], Pfizer [n=10.8m] and Moderna [N=0.7m]). The median (and interquartile ranges) for COVID Hospitalisation and ICU admissions for COVID, were 1181/week (559-1559/week) and 115/week (50-174/week) respectively. CONCLUSIONS The RSC is broadly representative of the national population, its PCSC is geographically representative. Its SSGPs are newly supporting UKHSA syndromic surveillance efforts. The network captures vaccine coverage and has expanded from reporting primary care attendances to hospital outcomes and death. The challenge remains to increase virological and serological sampling to monitor the effectiveness, and waning of the increasing range of vaccines available in a timely manner.

Background The Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) is one of Europe’s oldest sentinel systems, working with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and its predecessor bodies for 55 years. Its surveillance report now runs twice weekly, supplemented by online observatories. In addition to conducting sentinel surveillance from a nationally representative group of practices, the RSC is now also providing data for syndromic surveillance. Objective The aim of this study was to describe the cohort profile at the start of the 2021-2022 surveillance season and recent changes to our surveillance practice. Methods The RSC’s pseudonymized primary care data, linked to hospital and other data, are held in the Oxford-RCGP Clinical Informatics Digital Hub, a Trusted Research Environment. We describe the RSC’s cohort profile as of September 2021, divided into a Primary Care Sentinel Cohort (PCSC)—collecting virological and serological specimens—and a larger group of syndromic surveillance general practices (SSGPs). We report changes to our sampling strategy that brings the RSC into alignment with European Centre for Disease Control guidance and then compare our cohort’s sociodemographic characteristics with Office for National Statistics data. We further describe influenza and COVID-19 vaccine coverage for the 2020-2021 season (week 40 of 2020 to week 39 of 2021), with the latter differentiated by vaccine brand. Finally, we report COVID-19–related outcomes in terms of hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and death. Results As a response to COVID-19, the RSC grew from just over 500 PCSC practices in 2019 to 1879 practices in 2021 (PCSC, n=938; SSGP, n=1203). This represents 28.6% of English general practices and 30.59% (17,299,780/56,550,136) of the population. In the reporting period, the PCSC collected >8000 virology and >23,000 serology samples. The RSC population was broadly representative of the national population in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, National Health Service Region, socioeconomic status, obesity, and smoking habit. The RSC captured vaccine coverage data for influenza (n=5.4 million) and COVID-19, reporting dose one (n=11.9 million), two (n=11 million), and three (n=0.4 million) for the latter as well as brand-specific uptake data (AstraZeneca vaccine, n=11.6 million; Pfizer, n=10.8 million; and Moderna, n=0.7 million). The median (IQR) number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions was 1181 (559-1559) and 115 (50-174) per week, respectively. Conclusions The RSC is broadly representative of the national population; its PCSC is geographically representative and its SSGPs are newly supporting UKHSA syndromic surveillance efforts. The network captures vaccine coverage and has expanded from reporting primary care attendances to providing data on onward hospital outcomes and deaths. The challenge remains to increase virological and serological sampling to monitor the effectiveness and waning of all vaccines available in a timely manner.

Background Social distancing and other nonpharmaceutical interventions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 infection in the United Kingdom have led to substantial changes in delivering ongoing care for patients with chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Clinical guidelines for the management and prevention of complications for people with T2DM delivered in primary care services advise routine annual reviews and were developed when face-to-face consultations were the norm. The shift in consultations from face-to-face to remote consultations caused a reduction in direct clinical contact and may impact the process of care for people with T2DM. Objective The aim of this study is to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic’s first year on the monitoring of people with T2DM using routine annual reviews from a national primary care perspective in England. Methods A retrospective cohort study of adults with T2DM will be performed using routinely collected primary care data from the Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC). We will describe the change in the rate of monitoring of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) between the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) and the preceding year (2019). We will also report any change in the eight checks that make up the components of these reviews. The change in HbA1c monitoring rates will be determined using a multilevel logistic regression model, adjusting for patient and practice characteristics, and similarly, the change in a composite measure of the completeness of all eight checks will be modeled using ordinal regression. The models will be adjusted for the following patient-level variables: age, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, COVID-19 shielding status, duration of diabetes, and comorbidities. The model will also be adjusted for the following practice-level variables: urban versus rural, practice size, Quality and Outcomes Framework achievement, the National Health Service region, and the proportion of face-to-face consultations. Ethical approval was provided by the University of Oxford Medical Sciences Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee (September 2, 2021, reference R77306/RE001). Results The analysis of the data extract will include 3.96 million patients with T2DM across 700 practices, which is 6% of the available Oxford-RCGP RSC adult population. The preliminary results will be submitted to a conference under the domain of primary care. The resulting publication will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal on diabetes and endocrinology. Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the delivery of care, but little is known about the process of caring for people with T2DM. This study will report the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these processes of care. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/35971

Pancreatic cancer is the 10th most common cancer diagnosed; despite recent advances in many areas of oncology, survival remains poor, in part owing to late diagnosis. Whilst primary care data are used widely for epidemiology and pharmacovigilance, they are less used for observing survival. In this study we extracted a pancreatic cancer cohort from a nationally representative English primary care database of electronic health records (EHRs) and reported on their symptom and mortality data. A total of 11, 649 cases were identified within the Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Clinical Informatics Digital Hub network. All-cause mortality data was recorded for 4623 (39.69%). Mean age at recording of cancer diagnosis was 71.4 years (SD 12.0 years). 1-year and 5-year survival was 22.06% and 3.27% respectively. Within a multivariate model, age had a significant impact on survival; those diagnosed under the age of 60 had the longest survival, as compared to those age 60 – 79 (HR: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.20 – 1.54, p < 0.001) and 80+ (HR: 2.13, 95% CI: 1.86 – 2.44, p < 0.01). Symptomatology was examined; at any time point abdominal pain was the most commonly reported symptom present in 5271 cases (45.2%), but within the 12 months preceding diagnosis jaundice was the most common feature, present in 2587 patients (22.2%). Future studies clarifying other contributing factors on survival outcomes and patterns of symptomatology are needed; primary care EHRs provide an opportunity to evaluate real-world cancer patient cohort data.