HDR UK London

Overview

The HDR Inter-regional network, led by Professors Sinéad Langan and Harry Hemingway in London, brings widespread expertise and interests in exploring regional variations in patterns of health care use recorded in electronic health records. The network focuses on:

Inter-regional development of methods and applications of ‘whole hospital’ data approaches to inform clinical practice, health policy, and research, to complement work across the regions.
Understanding the use of whole-system approaches for research, clinical practice and policy.
Building partnerships across the regions and delivering better research and care through engagement activities and workshops.

Regional expertise

Developing and applying novel disease phenotyping methods
Optimal use and reporting of large-scale population-based data
Transparent reporting of real-world data
Methods to explore geographical patterns in diseases
Challenges and opportunities around high-resolution data
PPIE

- Bringing together regional leads to foster collaboration and enhance opportunities from regional and national data and expertise.
Understanding regional patterns and variations in healthcare use and delivery to support improved care and longevity, for example:
- Regional patterns and drivers of treatment variation in key areas, e.g., high-cost drug use and preterm births. We are focused on research to understand patterns and drivers of variations in care and outcomes. This includes understanding variations in prescribing of high-cost targeted therapies used in the treatment of inflammatory conditions (e.g., inflammatory joint, skin and bowel diseases). Results will help inform policy, planning and has a goal of improving outcomes and reducing inequalities.
- Use and variation in hospital procedures before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic – this work will use national data to (1) describe patterns of variation in diagnostic and therapeutic procedure use before, during and after COVID-19 pandemic, (2) understand how the diagnostic odyssey of common and rare diseases has changed before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic; and (3) describe how patterns of therapy (drugs, procedures) changed before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Results will improve planning of health care services, reduce delays and improve access to care.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-54035-1