NHS Digital Data Release Register - reformatted

Kingston University projects

30 data files in total were disseminated unsafely (information about files used safely is missing for TRE/"system access" projects).

SkillMix-ED Study (Phase Two) — DARS-NIC-431736-X6C4F

Type of data: information not disclosed for TRE projects

Opt outs honoured: Anonymised - ICO Code Compliant, No (Does not include the flow of confidential data)

Legal basis: Health and Social Care Act 2012 – s261(2)(a)

Purposes: No (Academic)

Sensitive: Sensitive, and Non-Sensitive

When:DSA runs 2024-07-12 — 2027-07-11 2024.08 — 2024.08.

Access method: One-Off

Data-controller type: KINGSTON UNIVERSITY

Sublicensing allowed: No

Datasets:

  1. Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS)
  2. Hospital Episode Statistics Accident and Emergency (HES A and E)

Objectives:

Kingston University London requires access to NHS England data for the purpose of the following research project: SkillMix-ED Study (Phase Two)

The following is a summary of the aims of the research project provided by Kingston University:

“The purpose of the project under this Data Sharing Agreement is to explore how non-medical practitioners, as part of the clinical workforce, are being deployed and the impact of different skill-mix including non-medical practitioners in emergency departments and urgent treatment centres on patient experience, quality of care, clinical outcomes, activity, staff experience and costs in acute NHS trusts in England, in order to inform workforce decisions of clinicians, managers and commissioners. The data requested are required to provide patient-level clinical outcomes, activity, and cost. The requested data provide national data on patient processes and outcomes of their emergency department (ED) or urgent treatment centres (UTC) attendance. These individual-level data are required to construct a NHS trust-level description of the patient group, to which publicly-available variables may be added and outcomes at trust-level be considered, month-by-month over a five-year period. This analysis will allow Kingston University to have statistical power and to be able to generalise from results.

“National data are requested in order to provide a comprehensive picture of the impact of different skill-mixes including non-medical practitioners in England.

The data are required to answer the following research question considered to be of national importance:
What is the impact of different non-medical practitioner skill-mix in EDs and UTCs in NHS acute hospitals on patient and service processes and outcomes?

The request is made for a standalone research project, which is not currently part of any project, collaboration, associated work or follow up.

The Primary outcome will be the rate of unplanned return to the ED within 7-days; a proxy for clinical safety.

The secondary outcomes are the five nationally collected indicators of ED/UTC health system quality
- Left department before being seen for treatment rate
- Time to initial assessment
- Time to treatment
- Total time in A&E
- Onward referral /treatment complete time

Patient-level data will allow Kingston University to create organisation-level descriptions of patient demographics, as well as episode, clinical, injury and referral/discharge information, enabling the measurement of outcomes with knowledge of the patient case-mix."

Analyses will be adjusted based on ethnicity, age and gender to ensure the analysis is representative.

The following NHS England data will be accessed:
• Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS)
• Hospital Episode Statistics Accident & Emergency (HES A&E)

These datasets are both necessary because the research question on the impact of skill-mix on patient outcomes requires access to patient-level episode data. HES A&E provide these data in the early years of data period (2017-2019) and ECDS from 2019-2023. ECDS 2019-2020 is necessary for Kingston University to collect for descriptive analysis of pseudonymised patient records to understand whether that year differs in patient attendance type, volume, or outcomes (other than the primary outcome of reattendance as patients cannot be linked).

The level of the data will be:
• Pseudonymised

The data will be minimised as follows:
• Limited to all patients with a recorded attendance episode at an emergency department or urgent treatment centre
• Limited to data from March 2017 to the latest data available.

Kingston University is the research sponsor and the controller as the organisation responsible for ensuring that the data will only be processed for the purpose described above.

Microsoft Limited are a processors acting under the instructions of Kingston University. Microsoft Limited's role is vendor agnostic and Kingston University will use the most appropriate vendor for the processing needed.

Computer Systems Integration (CSI) Limited, under the instruction of Kingston University, provide a managed service for Kingston University’s backup environments - this involves monitoring backups, maintaining the system, performing restores and running disaster recovery scenarios. As CSI have the ability to have sight of the data, CSI are therefore listed as a processor.

The lawful basis for processing personal data under the UK GDPR is:
Article 6(1)(e) - processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller; the research is funded by the National Institute of Health and Social Care Research to inform health services.

The lawful basis for processing special category data under the UK GDPR is:
Article 9(2)(j) - processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in accordance with Article 89(1) based on Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject.

This processing is in the public interest because it adheres to the UK Policy Framework for Health and Social Care Research and aims to explore how non-medical practitioners are being deployed and the impact of different skill-mix including non-medical practitioners in emergency departments and urgent treatment centres on patient experience, quality of care, clinical outcomes, activity, staff experience and costs in acute NHS trusts in England, in order to inform workforce decisions of clinicians, managers and commissioners.

The funding is provided by National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The funding is specifically for the study described.

Kingston University is the sole organisation who will access the the data. No other organisation will process the data

Research co-applicants include members of the following other organisations: Royal Holloway University of London; University of Surrey; St George’s University Hospitals NHS Trust and Surrey and Sussex NHS Healthcare Trust. The co-applicants provide expert advice and guidance to the core research team at Kingston University, via bi-monthly study management meetings, and expert input (e.g., sociological, clinical and health economic) to the planning of the conduct of the study and interpretation of its findings. The study management group will see outputs of data analyses associated with the data under this Data Sharing Agreement but will have no access to the data. Specific data analysis outputs will be shared with co-applicant from the University of Surrey for health economic analysis. For the avoidance of doubt, the data analysis outputs shared with co-applicants will be aggregated with small number suppression rules applied.

A Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) and Engagement group helped refine the purpose of the research. The group supported the collection of the data for the purposes described above. The PPI group under the leadership of the study PPI co-applicant has commented on the study design and data collection, being specifically asked about the collection of routine patient information; they understood the benefits of national data and that this would be de-identified. The PPI panel will receive selected excerpts of data analysis to inform their contribution to interpretation of the study but will have no access to data. Engagement with the PPI panel will continue throughout the lifecycle of this study.

Expected Benefits:

The findings of this research study are expected to contribute to evidence-based decision-making for policy-makers, local decision-makers such as senior clinicians and managers, and patient and public engagement groups to inform best practice to improve the care, treatment and experience of health care workforce and service users relevant to the subject matter of the study.

The use of the data could:
• lead to the identification or improvement of health and care system design to improve health and care outcomes or experience.
• inform planning health services and programmes, for example to improve equity of access, experience and outcomes.
• inform decisions on how to effectively allocate and evaluate funding for workforce.
• provide a mechanism for checking the quality of care. This could include identifying areas of good practice to learn from, or areas of poorer practice which need to be addressed.
• support knowledge creation or exploratory research (and the innovations and developments that might result from that exploratory work).

Benefits to patients are dependent on study results and are not expected to be direct. These data contribute to an analysis of patient outcomes according to the skill-mix composition of the workforce. If skill-mix differences are found to contribute to patient outcomes, the study may be able to recommend an optimal (or parameters for improved) skill-mix for patient outcomes.

It is hoped that through publication of findings in appropriate media, the findings of this research will add to the body of evidence that is considered by the bodies, organisations and individual health service managers and clinicians charged with making policy decisions for or within the NHS or staffing decisions in relation to sector of the workforce.

An NHS trust might give consideration to its staffing models if they differed from those potentially identified as producing improved patient, staff or organisational outcomes, they would do this based on the information provided to them in order to realise the potential improvement opportunities.

The channels described in the outputs dissemination sections will be utilised initially, with a view to wider public dissemination if considered appropriate. The study topic does not align to particular charities; engagement with public bodies such as Healthwatch will however be sought.

Outputs:

The expected outputs of the processing will be:

• Article submissions to peer-reviewed journals, including, but not limited to the NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research Journal through an agreed threaded publication protocol.
• National conference presentations and presentations within Kingston University (free online seminars) to manager forums and emergency service or health services research-focused conferences
• Short briefings and vignettes targeted at NHS managers, clinicians, and commissioners.
• Blogs hosted on the SkillMix-ED webpages.
• Social media and industry publications
• Press releases
• Other activities such as workshops involving health service managers and clinicians and/ or policy makers; webinars open to interested parties in health services, policy and research; direct bilateral engagement with health service managers and clinicians and/ or policy makers; or engagement in other public events will be determined by the study results and interest in their publication.

The outputs will not contain NHS England data and will only contain aggregated information with small numbers suppressed as appropriate in line with the relevant disclosure rules for the dataset(s) from which the information was derived.

Processing:

No data will flow to NHS England for the purposes of this Agreement.

NHS England will provide the relevant records from the HES A&E and ECDS dataset to Kingston University. The data will contain no direct identifying data items. The data will be pseudonymised and individuals cannot be reidentified through linkage with other data in the possession of the recipient.

The data will not be transferred to any other location.

The data will be stored on servers at Kingston University.

Kingston University stores Data on the Cloud provided by Microsoft Azure

Kingston University uses offsite back-up services provided by the University’s backup partner CSI Limited

The Data will be accessed by authorised personnel via remote access.

The Controller(s) must confirm and provide evidence upon audit by NHS England that access via any remote device complies with the data security obligations within this DSA and the Data Sharing Framework Contract.

For remote access:
- Remote access will only be from secure locations situated within the territory of use (as further restricted elsewhere within the DSA if so done) stated within this DSA;
- Access controls granting users the minimum level of access required are in place;
- Remote access is only via secure connections (e.g., VPNs or secure protocols) to protect data;
- Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required for remote access;
- Device security, including up-to-date software and operating systems, antivirus software, and enabled firewalls are utilised for the remote access;
- All remote access is undertaken within the scope of the organisation’s DSPT (or other security arrangements as per this DSA) and complies with the organisation’s remote access policy.

The above applies in addition to any condition set out elsewhere within the DSA (e.g. who may carry out processing, and for what purpose).

The data will not leave England any time.

Data will be accessed by substantive employees of Kingston University.

All personnel accessing the data have been appropriately trained in data protection and confidentiality.

The data will not be linked with any other data.

There will be no requirement and no attempt to reidentify individuals when using the data.

Analysts/researchers with a specific role are employed to undertake the study will process and analyse the data for the purposes described above.

Use and impact of the pre-hospital 12-lead electrocardiogram in the primary PCI era. Mixed method study (PHECG-2) — DARS-NIC-216853-V1V1H

Type of data: information not disclosed for TRE projects

Opt outs honoured: Yes - patient objections upheld, Anonymised - ICO Code Compliant, Yes (Section 251 NHS Act 2006)

Legal basis: Health and Social Care Act 2012 – s261(1) and s261(2)(b)(ii), Health and Social Care Act 2012 – s261(1) and s261(2)(b)(ii), Health and Social Care Act 2012 – s261(2)(b)(ii)

Purposes: No (Academic)

Sensitive: Sensitive

When:DSA runs 2019-06-01 — 2021-05-31 2019.11 — 2019.11.

Access method: One-Off

Data-controller type: KINGSTON UNIVERSITY LONDON, KINGSTON UNIVERSITY

Sublicensing allowed: No

Datasets:

  1. Civil Registration - Deaths
  2. Civil Registration (Deaths) - Secondary Care Cut
  3. Civil Registrations of Death - Secondary Care Cut

Objectives:

Kingston University is seeking permission to obtain Civil Registry mortality data linked to the MINAP (Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project) dataset (data collected as part of National Clinical Audit of Acute Coronary Syndromes). NHS Digital will act as a trusted third party to receive the MINAP data and link it with the mortality data. The linked data will be used to answer research questions for the study “Use and impact of the pre-hospital 12-lead electrocardiogram in the primary PCI era: mixed methods study (PHECG-2)”.

Kingston University are requesting only mortality data. The data supplied by NHS Digital under this Agreement is not personal data as defined by the GDPR.

For the data flowing from NICOR to NHS Digital for the purpose of linkage of MINAP data to Civil registration mortality data and the subsequent processing of linked datasets by the named data processing organisation (Swansea University), the following legal basis for processing in research in living humans apply:

Article 6 (1) e: processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller
Article 9 (2) j: processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in accordance with Article 89(1) based on Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject.

The data released to the research team will be pseudonymised; the dataset is expected to generate approximately 510,000 records thus risk of identifying an individual is highly unlikely.

The mortality data requested will enable Kingston University to answer the following research questions covered in Work Package 1 (WP1):
• For patients presenting to Emergency Medical Services (EMS) with suspected Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS), is there a difference in 30- day mortality and reperfusion strategy in patients managed outside hospital by EMS between those who do and do not receive a pre-hospital electrocaradioram (PHECG)? (WP1)
• Has the proportion of eligible patients who received PHECG changed since the national rollout of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) networks? (WP1)

There are 3 other work packages which do not require the use of mortality data but complete the study protocol:
• Are patients that receive a PHECG different from those that do not in terms of social and demographic factors, and in their pre-hospital clinical presentation? (WP2)
• What factors do EMS clinicians report as influencing their decision to perform a PHECG? (WP3)
• Synthesis of the findings (WP4)

The study is an independent, one off study that builds on the findings from the Quinn et all (2014). PHECG is not part of any other project or study. It is funded by British Heart Foundation (ref: PG/18/13/33558), the grant commenced in 2018. BHF will not be in any way involved in handling or processing or controlling this data. BHF will receive an end of study report containing results from the study in aggregated format.

For the purpose of this application, Kingston University is interested in long term patient outcome data, in this case mortality/survival at 30 days and one year after admission. The requested Civil Registry data will be used in the work package 1 (WP1) for mortality/survival analysis. Mortality data will be linked to patients with acute coronary syndrome that appear in the MINAP (Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project) database.
Thus the cohort consists of all patient admissions available in MINAP database between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2017 with confirmed diagnosis of ACS.

The inclusion criteria for analysis are:
• Aged 18 or older
• Admitted with ACS to a participating hospital in January 2010 - December 2017
• Brought to hospital by ambulance

The Pre-Hospital 12-lead electrocardiogram (PHECG) is a simple test that helps ambulance clinicians assess patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (heart attack), and helps to inform ongoing care, such as direct transfer to a specialist heart attack centre. All NHS emergency ambulances carry this equipment. This project builds on previous work by this research team, which found that one in three eligible patients did not receive a PHECG, but those that did had a lowered risk of short-term death. Women, the elderly and people with more complex health status were less likely to receive PHECG. The dominant treatment for heart attack at the time of earlier analysis carried out by Kingston University was 'clot buster' drug therapy (fibrinolysis). In this study Kingston University will update that work, in the context of the shift in recent years to a more interventional strategy for treatment of heart attack (angioplasty and stents), and explore reasons for variations in practice -highlighting opportunities to improve care and outcomes.

Using routinely collected data from a large national audit, a review of ambulance records, and qualitative methods, Kingston University will assess the association of having PHECG with patient outcomes, and research patient, practitioner and contextual factors contributing to the decision to record (or not) a PHECG. The research study team will aim subsequently to develop an intervention to increase the proportion of eligible patients that receive a PHECG, and to produce a proposal for further funding to test this intervention in a subsequent randomised trial.

The proposed research has important implications for the NHS and people's health. Heart attack remains a common condition and a leading cause of death. The role of the ambulance service has evolved in recent years to provide early diagnosis of heart attack using the electrocardiogram ('heart trace' or ECG). When the test is done in the ambulance it is termed 'prehospital ECG (PHECG). A systematic review of studies combining results of several studies - of which the study by Quinn et al was by far the largest- confirmed the benefits of having PHECG in terms of improved survival in patients who had the test in the ambulance.

Since the previous study the main treatment of heart attack has changed from using 'clot buster' drugs to using angioplasty and stents. Kingston University does not know in this contemporary setting whether the ambulance ECG is being done in all patients who might benefit, or whether it is still associated with improved outcomes. Kingston University also know very little about how paramedics make decisions about whether or not to record an ECG on a patient.

Findings from the PHECG-2 study will provide important information about the use of the ECG test in contemporary heart attack care. It will also provide insights that have not been studied before about the wider factors (other than the purely clinical data from the national audit) that might influence whether a patient gets an ECG or not while under the care of the ambulance service.

Should the results show that there is still a proportion of heart attack patients who are not getting the ECG test, Kingston University hopes to be able to use the insights from their research to develop (and later test in another study) an intervention to narrow this gap, benefiting more patients.

Kingston University require Civil Registry mortality data including cause of death linked to MINAP dataset for the purpose of patient outcomes analysis, specifically 30 day and one year post admission all-cause mortality and cause of death.

Only pseudonymised data are required for this study. A defined cohort from the MINAP data will be linked to Civil Registry mortality data by NHS Digital and the relevant study team members at Swansea University will receive both datasets in pseudonymised form. Patient level data are required in order to apply risk adjustment when calculating mortality rates to make the results as comparable as possible.

The study requires data for patients from 2010 to 2017 inclusive. This will allow Kingston University to look at trends over time, increase the statistical power and cover the period when the primary angioplasty (or primary PCI – preferred treatment and system to treat patients with acute form of a heart attack as fast as possible) has been rolled out across England and Wales and to make analyses as contemporary and thus as relevant as possible.

MINAP collects data for patient in England, Wales and latterly in Northern Ireland. Kingston University are applying for data in England and Wales only as the mortality data are only available for these two countries. By including data from both countries, the results will be more generalisable compared to focusing on e.g. England only.

Kingston University confirm that they do not know of any other less intrusive way of achieving the purpose of the study in relation to WP1 which is the subject of this application.

Kingston University have requested pseudonymised mortality data linked to MINAP data by NHS Digital is sent to Swansea University who are the data processor thus eliminating the need for the research team to handle patient identifiable data related to this request.

Kingston University Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, Kingston University & St George's, University of London are a joint faculty. However, in the context of this Agreement, the sole Data Controller is Kingston University, the sponsor organisation for this study. St George's, University of London will not determine the purpose of this study or the manner in which the data will be used. The data will be processed by the study statistical team based at Swansea University. No other organisations will be processing the data

The following three organisations are involved in WP2 and WP3:
- West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust
- South West Ambulance Service NHS Foundation trust
- Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust

The above three organisations are participating sites in the WP2 whereby a research paramedic identified at each participating site will be abstracting already collected data held by the ambulance Trust from their local patient record forms (PRF) on a sample of patients generated from the records in the MINAP dataset. None of the above organisations will have access to Civil Registry mortality data or MINAP data with exception of ambulance job number which enables them to link the selected records to their local PRFs.

For the WP3, the above organisations will help with the recruitment of EMS clinical staff into focus groups, assist with identification of suitable venues and other tasks related to the organisation of the focus groups.

Expected Benefits:

Understanding the clinical and non-clinical factors influencing EMS clinicians’ decisions to record a PHECG will enable Kingston University to develop (and later test through in a randomised trial) an intervention with the potential to improve PHECG uptake and patient outcomes following an ACS event. With over 85,000 admissions with acute myocardial infarction recorded in MINAP each year, and millions worldwide, the potential for this research to improve outcomes nationally and internationally is substantial.

With the improved uptake of PHECG, more patients are likely to benefit from having PHECG recorded and as such have improved clinical outcomes following their episode of acute coronary syndrome.

The results will be shared via peer-reviewed journals, conferences, made publicly available to anyone with interest in this area of care to inform national and international guidelines and practice. In addition, Kingston University intend to develop an intervention for testing to improve the uptake of PHECG for all that might benefit from it.

The results will be shared via peer-reviewed journals, conferences, made publicly available to anyone with interest in this area of care to inform national and international guidelines and practice.

National and international guidelines for heart attack care, and education of paramedics and other relevant health professionals are informed by the published scientific literature; the evidence base. Thus publication in peer-reviewed journals is a key lever of research impact on patients and the public. Work in this area previously published by the study research team was influential in changing national and international guidelines.

Improvements in heart attack care in people presenting to ambulance services. The precise nature will not of course be known until the research has been undertaken.

The previous study by Quinn et al (2014) reported that approximately a third of patients with heart attack who came by ambulance did not receive PHECG and had worse outcomes than those who did. Optimising use of this simple test has the potential to save lives following heart attack.

Guideline implementation will be at local level, informed by national and international guidelines. Individual clinician behaviour may be influenced by the overall study findings (e.g. a paramedic’s threshold for performing PHECG in the elderly, women or co-morbid patients). This will of course depend on study findings.

The benefits can be measured through local audit (e.g. for Ambulance Quality Indicators), national audit (MINAP) and international (which may be through national registries)

When it will be achieved depends on study findings and any subsequent guideline recommendations to inform practice.


References:
Quinn T, Johnsen S, Gale CP, et al. Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project (MINAP) Steering Group. Effects of pre-hospital 12-lead ECG on processes of care and mortality in acute coronary syndrome: a linked cohort study from the Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project. Heart 2014;100:944-50

Outputs:

The results will be published in variety of peer-reviewed journals and presented at different conferences (either oral and/or poster presentation).

Kingston University will produce a report for the funder, REC and NICOR/HQIP and will develop an infographic(s) and/or other lay summaries of the research which they also plan to share with participants in the research, participating and non-participating ambulance Trusts and the National Ambulance Research Steering Group. Kingston University will also use a variety of PPI platforms and networks through PPI colleagues, INVOLVE and British Heart Foundation (the funder of this study) to reach out as many members of the public and patients as possible. The results will also be available on Kingston University website.

Some of the publications in peer reviewed journals might be publicised through press releases, most likely in conjunction with the funder (BHF) and collaborating institutions to further raise the study's profile.

The data will be reported in aggregate format; small numbers are unlikely given the size of the dataset. However, in an unlikely event that issue of small numbers should occur, these will be suppressed in line with the HES analysis guide.

The study Steering Committee has approved a Publication Charter of which role is to:
• ensure the timely creation and publication of high quality abstracts, presentations, and manuscripts based on the PHECG-2 study.
• solicit, review, refine and prioritize projects and analysis plans following submission of suggestions for outputs arising from the research.
• define timeline, track progress and determine peer-reviewed destination for each output (and within which of the following types of academic works: abstract, presentation, and manuscript)
• review all abstracts/presentations/manuscripts prior to submission/publication to ensure quality. (‘Safeguarding the PHECG-2 brand.’)

Kingston University aim to publish the results from the study within one year from the end of the study.

Kingston University are also required to produce a progress report to the REC 13 months from the date the ethical approval was given, and a summary of the final report on the research will be provided to the REC within 12 months of the conclusion of the study.

The study is funded until 30 November 2019.

The sponsor’s institution has an open access policy for the dissemination of findings. The funder also has separate funding arrangements that form part of standard terms and conditions of the grant covering the cost of open access publishing.

Data will not be shared with third parties.

Processing:

The data flow in respect of the data linkage of MINAP data with Civil Registration mortality data is illustrated below:

1. NICOR will generate the pseudonymised MINAP dataset/cohort consisting of all records with admission dates from 1 January 2010 up to 31 December 2017 inclusive with clinical data and send to Swansea Trials Unit to the statistical team. The pseudonymised MINAP dataset will include sex and ethnicity data items as Section 251 support is in place for these data items to be released as part of the analysis dataset provided to Swansea University.
2. NICOR will send a separate file of the same cohort with patient identifiable including study ID, NHS number, date of birth, gender and postcode to NHS Digital for the purpose of linkage to Civil Registry morality data. NHS Digital will perform the linkage, remove all identifying information and will send the mortality data with NICOR unique record IDs to the statistical team at Swansea Trials Unit. NICOR will not receive the mortality data linked to MINAP.
3. Statisticians at Swansea Trials Unit will ‘link’ both MINAP clinical dataset and the file with pseudonymised mortality data from NHS Digital using a common unique record identifier that identifies the records but not patients.

No special category data will be sent to NICOR or the research team other than the linked mortality data will be leaving NHS Digital for the purpose of this application. NB: mortality data will only be sent to Swansea University (data processor).

Data related to this application will be processed by the statistical team at Swansea University only.

No further flow of data will take place following the receipt of the Civil Registry mortality data with pseudo-identifiers by the statistical team at Swansea University (data processor) who will undertake the analyses.

Civil Registry mortality data will be linked with pseudo-identifiers by the study statistical team. The study statistical team will use the linked dataset to perform the following analyses:

*30-day mortality (primary outcome) - the proportion of patients who die within 30 days of the date of their ACS event
* Time-to-death - the length of time in days from date of ACS event to death. Time-to-death will be summarised using Kaplan-Meier survival curves.
* In-hospital mortality - the proportion of patients in each group who die during the (initial) hospital stay following the date of their ACS event.
*One-year mortality - the proportion of patients in each group who die within one year of date of their ACS event.

Specified MINAP data will be linked to Civil Registry mortality data by NHS Digital. NICOR will send a file with relevant patient identifiers to NHS Digital via a secure facility agreed by both parties for the linkage including relevant pseudo-identifiers. Subsequently non identifiable MINAP clinical data will be sent to the study team for the same cohort. NHS Digital will perform the linkage and include MINAP pseudo-identifiers in the file that will be send to the study team with the attached date of death/vital status and cause of death. This way NICOR does not need to handle Civil Registry mortality data and the study team does not need to handle patient identifiers. The two datasets will be linked using pseudo-IDs by the research team for the analysis.

Kingston University only require a one-off linkage for the purpose of this study. There might be a need for a repeat of the linkage in the unlikely event that the original MINAP dataset was incomplete. The re-identification is highly unlikely as the MINAP dataset is likely to generate approximately 510,000 records. In addition, with the use of pseudo-identifiers and no access to reverse the process, the risk of patient identification is mitigated. The data from ambulance patient record forms will be submitted to the study research team in an anonymised form i.e. any reference to the patient or any member of EMS staff will be anonymised by the research paramedic prior to submission to the study statistical team.

There neither is nor there will be any requirement or attempt to re-identify the individuals.

The data processing will be carried out by substantive employees of the data processor which has a signed collaborative agreement with the data controller. All employees have been appropriately trained in data protection and confidentiality.

The information security arrangements have been reviewed and approved by NHS Digital as part of a CAG review for the purpose of section 251 application.

Economic burden of HPV9-related diseases in UK — DARS-NIC-200139-H2X2Y

Type of data: information not disclosed for TRE projects

Opt outs honoured: No - data flow is not identifiable, Anonymised - ICO Code Compliant, No (Does not include the flow of confidential data)

Legal basis: Health and Social Care Act 2012 – s261(1) and s261(2)(b)(ii), Health and Social Care Act 2012 – s261(1) and s261(2)(b)(ii), Health and Social Care Act 2012 – s261(2)(b)(ii)

Purposes: No (Academic)

Sensitive: Non Sensitive, and Non-Sensitive

When:DSA runs 2019-04-01 — 2021-03-31 2019.09 — 2019.09.

Access method: One-Off

Data-controller type: KINGSTON UNIVERSITY LONDON, KINGSTON UNIVERSITY

Sublicensing allowed: No

Datasets:

  1. Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care
  2. Hospital Episode Statistics Outpatients
  3. Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care (HES APC)
  4. Hospital Episode Statistics Outpatients (HES OP)

Objectives:

Kingston University requires NHS Digital data for scientific research purposes only. These purposes are fulfilled through accessing pseudonymised data which significantly reduces the ability to identify the data subjects.

Kingston University is the sole data controller and also processes the data for this study. Kingston University has determined that the data required are adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed (scientific research) and that appropriate safeguards in the form of technical and organisational measures are in place according to Regulation. No other organisations process the data for the purpose of this research. The scientific study is conducted in the public interest of making available, through scientific publication and dissemination of final results, a measure of the economic burden sustained by public health authorities in the United Kingdom with reference to the management of major diseases caused by HPV virus. This can provide the basis for the formulation and implementation of knowledge-based policies.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted virus and causes a substantial burden of disease in men and women. The prevalence of HPV remains unacceptably high. Among adults aged 18-59 in 2013-14, about 45 per cent of men and 40 per cent of women had genital HPV infection. The availability of vaccines led to the beginning of population wide immunisation programmes in most Western Countries. Recently, following new scientific evidence and advice from an independent panel of experts (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation - JCVI), UK Government announced the existing vaccination programme for girls will be extended to adolescent boys to protect them against HPV-related diseases.

In this light, researchers in the Institute for Leadership and Management in Health (ILMH) at Kingston University deem it relevant to estimate the economic burden associated with HPV at the present time. In the face of the expected changes in the allocation that will follow the introduction of the universal vaccination plan, it is considered important to assess the current use of resources due to HPV-induced malignancies. The objective of this research study is to estimate the economic burden of HPV in the UK, accounting for total direct medical costs associated with nine major HPV-related diseases. The use of Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care (APC) and Outpatient (OP) data would enhance the quality of the study accounting for patterns in hospital activity. This would allow for a more accurate estimation of the economic burden from the perspective of the NHS.

To achieve that, Kingston University requires HES APC and OP records for use in the “Economic burden of HPV9-related diseases in UK” research project and established the Institute for Leadership and Management in Health (ILMH) to undertake the research. The objective is to assess the resource utilisation, hence the number of services and treatments provided (ICD10CM and OPCS-4) to each hospitalised patient with a specific diagnosis (HRG). Access to HES APC and OP data will enable the researchers to estimate the number of hospitalised patients with specific diagnoses as identified by the ICD10CMs and HRGs.

Pseudonymised record level data will be used to calculate hospitalisation rates associated with HRGs. Namely the malignancies considered in the present application are cervical, vulvar, vaginal, penile, head and neck cancer. The study would estimate outpatient costs based on the information (e.g.: number of average visits) suggested by the extant literature and clinical experts. These costs would be associated to the appropriate tariff to calculate a measure of the average cost per patient.

Researchers in the ILMH at Kingston University require access to pseudonymised data from 2015-2018 for a cohort of patients defined through a set of inclusion criteria. These will allow researchers to identify naïve patients, defined as those who, in the two years previous to their hospital admission: 1) did not fall in any of the requested ICD10CM; 2) did not show any other malignant tumours. Kingston University require HES data on naïve patients for a period of three years after their first hospitalisation as suggested by clinical experts involved in previous publications.

Researchers require access to HES APC and OP data for NHS hospitals in England only. All hospital episodes for eligible patients are required in order to account for the total number of services provided by NHS to patients with HPV-related diagnose(s). This will allow to measure the overall use of resources associated with hospitalized patients identified by ICD10CM code related to HPV.

The extracted data will be linked to the national tariffs related to each HRG diagnosis. In this way, lifetime costs will be obtained. These will be then linked to epidemiological data (prevalence of HPV and genotype fractions) to calculate the overall economic burden at national level. Sensitivity analysis (probabilistic and deterministic) will be conducted to take into account the uncertainty around inputs and to provide a correct range of estimation.

Kingston University has determined that there are no moral or ethical issues and no risk of potential harm at any stage of the processing activities. Results will be disseminated in aggregate form only, being the objective that of estimating the overall burden of HPV-related diseases from the perspective of the National Payer (NHS) in UK. The dissemination will take form of scientific publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Expected Benefits:

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted virus and causes a substantial burden of disease in men and women. As reported by Cancer Research UK, there are around 3,200 new cervical cancer cases in the UK every year (2013-2015) which is the 14th most common cancer. Cervical cancer accounts for 2% of all new cancer cases in females in the UK (2015). Incidence rates for cervical cancer are projected to rise by 43% in the UK between 2014 and 2035, to 17 cases per 100,000 females by 2035. The objective of the present study is to estimate direct costs associated with the incident cases of nine major HPV related diseases: cervical cancer, cervical dysplasia, vulvar, vaginal, anus, penis and head and neck cancers, anogenital warts, and RRP in UK.

In 2018 in Italy, where a similar study was conducted by researchers of ILMH, Kingston University, a prevalence of 1.1 million cases of which 975 thousand associated to cervical conditions (86%), and 158 thousand to non-cervical (14%) was found. In 2018, the total direct costs associated with the annual incident cases of the nine major HPV malignancies in Italy were estimated to be €542.7 million, with a credible range of €346.7 - €782.0 million.

The purpose of the present study is to replicate the analysis, by applying the same methodology based on the UK data. This is considered relevant for policy considerations as the UK and Italy were the first two countries in Europe which allowed previous girl vaccination programmes to be extended to adolescent boys. In this light, Kingston University expect to estimate the economic consequences and potential savings which will be further discussed in the present scientific research.

Benefits will be measured by the impact of the scientific publication to the scientific community. This can be achieved through citations and dissemination of the results and by the adoption of knowledge-based decisions from policy makers.


Reference: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/cervical-cancer


The present analysis will constitute a tool for keeping records of the expected economic effects over time. Specifically, the results of this study will provide an estimation of annual direct costs associated with major HPV related diseases in UK. The study will present evidence of direct costs for cervical and non-cervical malignancies including those affecting man such as penile, anal, head and neck cancers as well as anogenital warts. The fraction of HPV costs by gender will be calculated and discussed in the light of the expected changes induced by the new vaccination plan that includes boys.

The NHS and the general population will benefit from the analysis in several ways. Firstly, a snapshot of the resource utilisation will be useful to improve resource allocation and understanding dynamics in public health spending. Secondly, the evidence will positively affect the application of the universal vaccination plan. Thirdly, future analyses will be able to compare results achieved by the new immunisation plan and compare these with the preceding patterns of resource utilisation as represented by the present work. Finally, the estimation of the total economic burden due to HPV will inform decision makers on the potential savings, which may follow the newly approved vaccination plan.

Outputs:

The final output of the present research project is the production of a scientific article to be submitted to peer-reviewed journals publishing studies in health economics and health technology assessment (HTA). The estimated submission date is October 2019. Aggregated findings of the study such as average hospitalisation rates and average lifetime cost per case will be included. The final output will contain only data in aggregated form and at national level.

All outputs will be aggregated with small numbers suppressed in line with the HES Analysis Guide and compliant with the MHSDS disclosure control rules including suppression and rounding.

Also, in order to target an audience of researchers and policy makers, a short version of the article abstract will be submitted through scientific papers and presented to the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) 2019 annual conference and the Health Technology Assessment International (HTAI) 2019 annual meeting.

The final version of the research will be shared among organisations such as “HPV Action” to enable the engagement with the scientific and policy-making communities.

Processing:

Kingston University requires access to HES Admitted Patient Care (APC) and Outpatient (OP) data. To achieve that, Kingston University will securely transfer a file of ICD10 CM codes (eligibility criteria) to NHS Digital. NHS Digital will identify all patients who had an episode with one of these ICD10 codes in the 2015/16 financial year. Any patients who also had an episode with one of these codes during the previous 2 years will be excluded from the cohort. For the remainder of the cohort, NHS Digital will extract all hospital episodes for all eligible patients for the period from 2015-18. NHS Digital will return a pseudonymised extract of data from HES APC and OP with no personal identifying information.

Data will not be used for commercial purposes, or direct marketing or provided in any form to any third party.

The extracted data will be linked to economic data derived from two main sources: a) systematic literature review; b) publicly available national tariffs and prices associated to HRGs. Specifically, tariffs and, when not available, data from literature, will be multiplied by the number of patients as reported by HES extraction to calculate lifetime costs per diagnosis. To achieve that, Kingston University has included a number of inclusion criteria to allow eligible patients to be identified and to enable costs related to ICD10CM diagnoses only to be calculated. Eligible patients are those who, in the two years previous to their hospital admission: 1) did not fall in any of the requested ICD10CM; 2) did not show any other malignant tumours. Kingston University require HES data on naïve patients for a period of three years after their first hospitalisation. Such inclusion criteria and the period of time were defined through an ongoing discussion with academics and clinic experts as well as applied by previously published literature.

Based on real world data from HES, a probabilistic, incidence-based estimation model will be developed to estimate aggregate measure of economic burden in UK. Specifically, the average lifetime costs per patient, per diagnosis, will result from linking HES data to tariffs. The total economic burden at UK level will be obtained by associating lifetime costs with prevalence rates of HPV included malignancies as derived from the systematic literature review. Furthermore, data from published literature will be applied to calculate the fraction of lifetime costs attributable to HPV infection and to each HPV genotype group. Also, the fraction of costs attributable to men and women will be calculated as some malignancies are gender specific.

Given the potential impact of findings on NHS policy, it is essential to minimise uncertainty. Therefore, to consider the variability of the data used to inform the estimation model (by linking real evidence from HES from England with literature evidence), a Probabilistic (PSA) and Deterministic Sensitivity Analysis (DSA) will be performed and included in the study analysis.

Data requested will only be accessed by individuals within the ILMH at Kingston University who have authorisation from the Director of ILMH to access the data for the purpose(s) described. Researchers involved in the project are employees of Kingston University. As substantive employees at Kingston University they will only carry out data processing for which they have been appropriately trained in data protection and confidentiality.

There will be neither requirement nor attempt to re-identify individuals from the data. Kingston University has determined that there is minimal risk to re-identification as the data is pseudonymised.

An estimation of the average, lifetime cost of patients with major HPV-related disease in the United Kingdom will be the final output. Also, a measure of the overall direct costs on the NHS will be obtained by reporting lifetime costs to the prevalence of HPV-related diseases in the UK. No personal data are required nor employed for the purposes of the scientific research. Lifetime costs are calculated as the mean value of tariffs associated with average number of hospital episodes per patient.

The data will not be made available to any third parties, other than in the form of aggregated outputs with small numbers suppressed in line with the HES Analysis Guide.

Data will be accessed by members at ILMH at Kingston University only. No remote access will be performed. Kingston University stores the data on a server at Kingston Business School, which can be only accessed at this location.

All organisations party to this agreement must comply with the Data Sharing Framework Contract requirements, including those regarding the use (and purposes of that use) by “Personnel” (as defined within the Data Sharing Framework Contract ie: employees, agents and contractors of the Data Recipient who may have access to that data).

The Data will only be used for the purposes described in this agreement.