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Introduction This project applies a Learning Healthcare System (LHS) approach to antibiotic prescribing for common infections in primary care. The approach involves iterations of data analysis, feedback to clinicians and implementation of quality improvement activities by the clinicians. The main research question is, can a knowledge support system (KSS) intervention within an LHS implementation improve antibiotic prescribing without increasing the risk of complications?Methods and analysis A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial will be conducted, with randomisation of at least 112 general practices in North-West England. General practices participating in the trial will be randomised to the following interventions: periodic practice-level and individual prescriber feedback using dashboards; or the same dashboards plus a KSS. Data from large databases of healthcare records are used to characterise heterogeneity in antibiotic uses, and to calculate risk scores for clinical outcomes and for the effectiveness of different treatment strategies. The results provide the baseline content for the dashboards and KSS. The KSS comprises a display within the electronic health record used during the consultation; the prescriber (general practitioner or allied health professional) will answer standard questions about the patient’s presentation and will then be presented with information (eg, patient’s risk of complications from the infection) to guide decision making. The KSS can generate information sheets for patients, conveyed by the clinicians during consultations. The primary outcome is the practice-level rate of antibiotic prescribing (per 1000 patients) with secondary safety outcomes. The data from practices participating in the trial and the dashboard infrastructure will be held within regional shared care record systems of the National Health Service in the UK.Ethics and dissemination Approved by National Health Service Ethics Committee IRAS 290050. The research results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and also disseminated to participating clinical staff and policy and guideline developers.Trial registration number ISRCTN16230629.

Introduction The learning healthcare system (LHS) underpinned by data analysis and feedback to clinical care providers is thought to improve quality of care. The work aimed to implement an LHS for antibiotic prescribing in primary care in England.Method Deidentified patient-level data from general practices were processed and analysed at regular intervals (fortnightly increments). A dashboard application was developed and implemented displaying analytical graphics to give periodic feedback to clinicians, tailored to each clinical site. Benchmarking parameters were established by the analysis of two large national primary care datasets allowing peer-to-peer comparisons. To date, the dashboard is available to 70 English practices.Conclusions Successful implementation and uptake of the secure technical LHS infrastructure for the analysis and feedback to clinicians of their antibiotic prescribing demonstrate a great appetite for this type of frequent prescribing review in primary care, combining advanced data analytics with tailored feedback.

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