A new UK system will link patient records with other health records to provide researchers with more comprehensive data. The Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) will allow scientists to compare patient records with information from sources such as disease registries and genetics databases, and eventually the UK Biobank, social care records and pollution information. The CPRD will change information about how the National Health Service (NHS) patient information is shared. The NHS constitution will be revised to reflect that patients have consented for their information to be included in CPRD unless otherwise indicated. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) plans to use CPRD for 500–600 studies each year and has begun two initial studies. One study will compare the long-term use in the real world of two treatments for high cholesterol, and the other will research the effects of antibiotics on patients with serious flare-ups of obstructive airway disease. The MHRA will charge companies £50,000–£100,000 ($64,000–$128,000) per study to use the CPRD, which is twice the amount it will charge academia. CPRD will cost £60 million to implement, which the government expects to make back in seven years. Data from all CPRD projects will be made public.

Source: The Guardian