Data Access Register - full project summary

It’s important that records of patient ethnicity are accurate when treatment decisions are based on ethnicity. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen that people from ethnic minority populations are more likely to die from COVID-19 and are at increased risk of post-COVID complications. We aim to analyse ethnicity data held in the UK LLC Trusted Research Environment which will provide a unique opportunity to compare self-reported ethnicity with NHS-coded ethnicity. To do this, we will count how many ethnicity records people have. We will study if records of ethnicity change over time. We will compare ethnicity records from the NHS with ethnicity records from longitudinal studies.

Results of our research will be especially important for any research into COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccinations. Results will also provide information to the NHS on how ethnicity should be recorded for the benefit of patients and help prepare us for dealing with any future pandemics.

We know that this is a sensitive area so we will have a steering group of experts and ethnically diverse public contributors to support this project. They will help with the study design, the interpretation of results, the development of communication strategies and materials to explain our findings.