QResearch pioneer honoured

A GP who set up the QResearch database, using anonymised data from around 10m patients registered at EMIS practices, has been honoured for her work.

Professor Julia Hippisley-Cox, professor of clinical epidemiology and general practice at Nottingham University, had been awarded the John Fry Silver Medal by the Royal College of GPs.

The medal commemorates the work of John Fry, one of the founders of epidemiology in general practice. It is awarded each year to a member of the RCGP who has promoted the discipline of general practice through research and publishing as a practicing GP.

Professor Hippisley-Cox recognised the potential of routine GP electronic clinical records for research and set up QResearch in partnership with EMIS.

The database is used by researchers throughout the UK and, increasingly, Europe. There have been more than 100 research publications using its data so far. It was used to develop a new cardiovascular risk assessment model, QRisk, and lately a diabetes predictor known as QDScore.

Professor Hippisley-Cox has also established QSurveillance which is the largest surveillance system of its kind in the world, again in partnership with EMIS.

The system looks at more than 100 indicators for 23m people in the UK every day and its uses include monitoring flu or monitoring the health effects of disasters such as the Buncefield fire and the Avon floods.

Dr Hippisley-Cox said: ““It’s a great honour to receive this award and I would like to thank my colleagues, The University of Nottingham, EMIS and the general practices who have contributed data medical research without which much of the research would not have been possible.”

Last year Tony Avery, Professor of Primary Care in The University of Nottingham's Medical School, received the John Fry Award.

Professor Avery is considered to be one of the leading patient-safety researchers in the world. He said: “It is quite clear from my knowledge of Julia's work that she is one of the most outstanding primary-care researchers in the world and the impact of her publications is phenomenal."

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