. Electronic Practice-based Research Network (ePBRN)

The ePBRN data repository at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia is a secure repository of general practice and hospital admissions data. This data is extracted from EHRs of 18 general practices and community and hospital services, including outpatient clinics, in health neighbourhoods in South Western Sydney. The data is pseudonymised, extracted and linked in a secure manner [1, 2] and includes patient demographics, medications, conditions and visits to general practices and hospitals. The linked data is used for analysis and investigation for various health research purposes [3, 4].

• Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership – Common Data Model (OMOP-CDM)

OMOP – CDM is a cost-effective methodology to map Australian datasets, such as the dataset of linked data from hospital and general practice EHRs from the ePBRN, to international EHR-derived datasets through the Observational Health Data Science Informatics (OHDSI) community. The first stage of  the data conversion was completed in 2018 with the GP dataset [5]. Data quality assessment and conversion of hospital data is being done from 2019 onwards. International health data harmonisation and benchmarking to support research across the continuum of care. International investigators include Professor Simon de Lusignan (University f Surrey, UK) and Professor Michael Kahn (University of Colorado, USA)

Funding: UNSW Research Infrastructure Scheme 2017-19

• Opioid utilisation within South Western Sydney (current)

The early identification of opioid abusers is important to prevent opioid overdoses and death. This study uses linked routinely collected primary care data to describe the use of opioids and relating it to continuity of care and doctor-shopping behaviour. Record linkage allows the monitoring of patients as they traverse the health system, attending and using services provided by different general practices, community health services, Emergency Departments and hospitals.

• Continuity of Care: Effect of GP utilisation on hospitalisation (current)

Unplanned secondary care such as emergency department attendances and hospital admissions are believed to be preventable with effective disease prevention and management in primary care settings.  Evidence suggests that longitudinal continuity of primary care (a patient cared by the same GP or general practice over time) can reduce hospitalization rates [6]. In this study, we investigate the association between continuity of general practice & primary care, and hospital admissions using routinely collected data in the primary and secondary care settings.

A paediatric subset of this database will be used as a real-world cohort to test establishing an electronic data repository of real-world data from electronic health record systems in primary care, community health and Local Health Districts for child health research.
Investigators: Eapen V, Lingam R, Jalaludin Bin, Chay P, Liaw ST.

Guo, G. N., Jonnagaddala, J., Farshid, S., Huser, V., Reich, C., & Liaw, S.-T. (2019). Comparison of the cohort selection performance of Australian Medicines Terminology to Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical mappings. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Guo, G. N., & Abel, L. A. (2018). The effect of stimulus type and autism quotient score on visual scanning of faces. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 59(9), 4413-4413.

Liaw, S.-T., Guo, G. N., Yeoh, S. L., & Jonnagaddala, J. (2019). Opioids in general practice: use or abuse. Paper presented at the AAAPC 2019 Annual Research Conference, Adelaide, Australia.

Farshid, S., Jonnagaddala, J., Guo, G. N., Wu, M., & Liaw, S.-T. (2018). Harmonising primary care data using international standard vocabularies for observational research. Paper presented at the HISA Health Informatics Conference (HIC) 2018, Sydney, Australia.