Unlocking real-world data to inform public health policy and practice – an introduction to care metadata

As part of the Unlocking real-world data project being delivered by our Health Economics, Evaluation and Equality theme, the project team has delivered a webinar and is hosting workshops to support Local Authority (LAs: e.g. City Councils) and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). The webinar and workshops focus on the availability and potential of routinely collected administrative and service activity data (Real World data) which could help inform commissioning processes: LAs commission publicly funded social care and some public health services, and CCGs fund the majority of NHS services as holders of around about two-thirds of the NHS budget.

The webinar An Introduction to Care Metadata hosted by Dr Matt Franklin, School of Health Related Research, University of Sheffield and Monica Jones, University of Leeds and Yorkshire & Humber Care Record (YHCR), is now available online via the following link: https://bit.ly/3raKcNI. It aids LAs and CCGs to start to develop a pilot metadata catalogue. It covers ‘An Introduction to metadata and why it is important for supporting commissioning-based decision making by local authorities and the NHS’ and ‘What is a metadata specification and catalogue, including its uses and benefits’. This webinar looks at the Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) standards and the Innovation Gateway, along with a demonstration. The intention of the webinar is to provide some insight into how to discover and understand routinely collected data, particular data which could inform commissioning-based decision making by local authorities and the NHS.

For further information on the Unlocking real-world data project, contact Matt Franklin at matt.franklin@sheffield.ac.uk.