16. Accident and
emergency
350,000 records
Outpatients
1,680,000 records
Inpatients
360,000 records
Social care
240,000 records
Community
matrons
20,000 records
GPs
60 practices
48.5 million records
Relative size of data sets collected
For one PCT area (WSD project)
March 2011
20. One person hospital cost profile over a year
50+ year old male, total annual cost > £35,000
Outpatients DayCase Elective AE Nonelective
Time (weeks)
22. Why rely on using existing data for research?
Advantage Disadvantage
• Descriptors of events and health
status
• Constrained by the data that are
collected – and quality/consistency
of coding
• Volume of cases versus costs of
data collection
• Handling sensitive personal
information (+/- consent)
• Comprehensive coverage • Coverage of the data – unknown
unknowns
• Enables retrospective studies/ not
time sensitive
• Volume of data – complex
processing