PRIMIS operates a fully cost recovered service.
View our PRIMIS Services brochure
All NHS organisations are focused on continually improving the quality of care for people using their services.
While there are many different approaches to quality improvement, there are some key principles that are common to all.
These include:
- using data to understand variation
- giving all staff the opportunity to contribute and act on ideas for improvement
- using many small-scale trials and pilots to learn and improve
Keep reading...
Here at PRIMIS we understand that effective quality improvement requires a flexible and tailored methodology to suit a variety of contexts.
Use PRIMIS as an experienced intermediary providing expert guidance on accessing and using primary care data
Commission PRIMIS experts to author a data specification detailing your specific data needs and requirements, both for implementation by PRIMIS or within another software solution
Turn raw data from GP clinical information systems into actionable insights by commissioning PRIMIS to produce a quality improvement tool or use one of our pre-written tools
Commission PRIMIS to produce tooling for the purpose of data extraction, reporting, messaging, or entry within a GP clinical information system
Understand variation in patient care across your PCN, locality or nationally by commissioning PRIMIS to provide a CHART Online comparative analysis tool
Support the quality improvement cycle by commissioning PRIMIS to provide training in facilitation skills, change management and root cause analysis
Tap into our experience of supporting the scale and spread of innovation within primary care
PRIMIS supports academics and researchers to realise the benefits of using primary care data to inform healthcare innovation and improvement.
The data held in the GP medical records of patients is used every day to support health and care planning and research in England, helping to find better treatments and improve patient outcomes for everyone.
Healthcare records from general practice provide the most comprehensive patient dataset, with huge potential to transform healthcare, now and in the future.
A data specification is a series of linked documentation that defines the clinical code groups and the logical business rules for any given clinical concept or defined indicator. It is a guideline to ensure a comprehensive and consistent data definition, for implementation within a software solution for data reporting, extraction and messaging purposes.
Thanks to the wealth of experience that the PRIMIS team holds, we are well positioned to provide data specification services to a wide range of organisations, such as national NHS organisations for large-scale national data reporting activities, and commercial partners and research teams.
We are proud to have created and continue to maintain the only nationally recognised COVID-19 vaccination specification, used for call and recall of patient and vaccination uptake monitoring by UKHSA.
Covid-19 information
use PRIMIS as an experienced intermediary providing expert guidance on accessing and using primary care data
commission PRIMIS experts to author a data specification detailing your specific data needs and requirements, both for implementation by PRIMIS or within another software solution
develop, update, validate or convert clinical code groups (i.e., from a legacy coding system to SNOMED CT)
provision of SNOMED CT clinical code groups, including the expression constraint language (ECL) and full extensional list
support for early career health informaticians and partner organisations looking to develop specialist skills in clinical coding
collaborative working on indicator scope and architecture
Throughout PRIMIS’ history we have provided data analysis tools to help people make sense of data collected in primary care. Our tools can help results to be reported, interpretations to be made, processes to be improved, and insights to be uncovered.
Our typical (but not exclusive) approach is to utilise MS Excel workbooks, such as the CHART software tool. Reporting interfaces within our analytical tools enable the display of patient level data from an underlying datasheet, essentially transforming patient level data into useful insights for the end user. This can include dashboards, graphs, and summary sheets, with the ability for the end user to ‘drill down’ from practice summative data to individual patient data.
PRIMIS can also provide comparative analysis services enabling data from GP practices to be summarised and compared at local and national levels.
Over 40% of GP practices in England contributed data to the PINCER comparative analysis service.
Often our analytical tools process raw data from GP systems searches to produce algorithm results. We have experience of evaluating the efficacy of algorithms as well as supporting their scale and spread across primary care.
Examples of our analytical tools which include algorithms:
the FAMCAT2 Tool and FAMCAT2 API implement the FAMCAT2 Algorithm, designed to identify patients with the highest probability of having familial hypercholesterolemia;
the Optimise2 Trial involves the implementation of a series of algorithms that have been developed by the University of Oxford to identify patients suitable for recruitment onto the trial;
the DePICtion study involves the implementation of the MODY* probability calculator to help clinicians prioritise which individuals should be oriented to genetic testing (* maturity-onset diabetes of the young)
The inclusion of an algorithm within an analytical tool can mean that the resulting tool needs to be registered as a medical device. PRIMIS is a registered manufacturer of medical devices and can advise customers on regulatory requirements.
A thorough clinical governance and quality assurance process is paramount to ensure that PRIMIS developments are safe, accurate and up to date. PRIMIS is certified under ISO9001 Quality Management which demonstrates an ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements.
PRIMIS is also aligned with the DCB0129 standards for clinical risk management for providers who develop and maintain health IT systems, including the maintenance of a hazard log throughout the development cycle and provision of a clinical safety case report. Information within these documents will support GP practices and other healthcare services to align with the DCB0160 standards for the effective application of clinical risk management by users who deploy and use health IT systems.
PRIMIS can remotely and securely dial into GP practice systems to install and run our digital tools. PRIMIS uses an NHS compliant software for this process.
This service can be particularly helpful for practices engaged in smaller projects, where regional or locality-based support is not available. PRIMIS’ remote dial-in service can ease the burden on GP practices by reducing staff time and resources needed to participate in projects, promoting GP practice participation in research primary care and contributing to its successful delivery.
If you would like to enquire about the remote dial-in service, please contact us on:
enquiries@primis.nottingham.ac.uk
Applied Health Research Building University Park University of Nottingham Nottingham, NG7 2RD