Collecting morbidity data in general practice: the Somerset morbidity project

Area of Science:

• Primary Care Medicine
• Health Informatics
• Public Health

Background:

• Primary care data is crucial for understanding local health needs.
• Effective service commissioning requires accurate and representative morbidity data.
• Previous efforts lacked comprehensive and continuous data collection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a valid, complete, and representative primary care morbidity database.
• To utilize collected data for evidence-based local health service commissioning.
• To assess the feasibility and utility of such a data collection network.

Main Methods:

• Utilized computerized general practices in Somerset, selected for population representativeness.
• Recorded all conditions from face-to-face consultations using Read codes and episode types.
• Implemented regular data validation and weekly data transfer via modem.

Main Results:

• 11 practices participated, achieving 96.4% coding completeness.
• Validation showed high accuracy: 94% for episode types and 87% for Read codes.
• Data influenced health authority purchasing plans and led to contract changes for glue ear surgery.

Conclusions:

• Demonstrated the feasibility of a primary care morbidity recording and reporting network.
• Indicated that the collected data is valuable for evidence-based health service purchasing.
• Highlighted the potential for improving local health service responsiveness to need.