Abstract:

The Greater Manchester Care Record (GMCR) is a database of linked primary and secondary care data for use in health research. It was created in response to the COVID-19 emergency and has supported many projects analysing all aspects of the pandemic. It will soon be taking applications for general health research and will no longer be restricted to COVID-19 research.

This event will showcase several aspects of the GMCR. First, Dr Richard Williams will: provide an overview of the data available in the GMCR;  describe the application process to get access to the data; and describe the role of the Research Data Engineers, how they assess project feasibility, and how they work closely with researchers to help clean and curate the data. Then, Dr Lamiece Hassan and Dr Ruth Watkinson, who have both had successful projects using GMCR data, will describe their research, and provide their experiences as users of the GMCR.

Chair: Matthew Sperrin (University of Manchester)

Speakers:

• Richard Williams is a senior software engineer and research fellow in the Centre for Health Informatics at the University of Manchester. His expertise and research focuses on the electronic health records of patients. Richard is the lead Research Data Engineer on the GMCR
• Lamiece Hassan is a mixed methods health services researcher at the University of Manchester. In April 2021, she joined the e-PHIT team as a mental health data scientist working primarily on 'big health data' projects that explore links between mental illness and COVID-19. Lamiece also has expertise in public engagement and involvement, epidemiology, surveys and qualitative methods. Her areas of interest include citizen science, co-production and public opinion on the reuse of health data.
• Ruth Watkinson is a research fellow in the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARC-GM) at the University of Manchester. Her research uses large datasets to identify and understand sociodemographic health inequalities. Current projects include investigation of inequalities in vaccine uptake between socioeconomic and ethnic groups, and mental health inequalities related to gender identity.