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CVD-COVID-UK / COVID-IMPACT

CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT is a major research programme coordinated by the BHF Data Science Centre, bringing together a consortium of over 400 researchers across more than 50 organisations. The programme enables analysis of pseudonymised, linked, nationally collated healthcare datasets across the UK to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease, as well as its impact on other health conditions and risk factors. 

Programme Lead: Professor Angela Wood

The consortium is open to all researchers who sign up to our principles and ways of working. For enquiries or to join the consortium, contact us at bhfdsc@hdruk.ac.uk.

Update

New projects requesting access to data in the NHS England Secure Data Environment will no longer be accepted under our current data sharing agreement with NHS England. This comes with the need to move beyond COVID-19 related research. 

NHS England started discussions with us in early/mid-April 2025 and confirmed details of the change on 8 May. We are discussing opportunities with NHS England to establish new data sharing agreements that enable high-impact research with potential to transform lives. 

Research aims and questions

CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT enables research focused on three broad aims:

Aim 1

What are the effects of heart and circulatory diseases or other prior health conditions, their risk factors and medications on susceptibility and poor outcomes (including admission to hospital, requirement for intensive care and death) from COVID-19 disease?

Aim 2

What is the direct impact of COVID-19 on heart and circulatory disease complications or on other health complications, as well as on medium and longer-term heart and circulatory disease or other health condition risks?

Aim 3

What is the indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government and NHS response to it on the presentation, diagnosis, management and outcomes of heart and circulatory diseases or other health conditions?

What we do

Enable COVID-19 connected research through access to national datasets

  • Faster access to pseudonymised, linked, whole-population health data across the four nations of the UK . 
  • Secure data environments in collaboration with national data custodians . 
  • Single project proposal form and streamlined review process.  

Provide data curation and analysis support

  • Development and maintenance of data curation and analysis tools.  
  • Curation and data science services: 
    • Guidance on feasibility, planning, and data access . 
    • Curation service providing partial or full data curation for a project.  
    • Full service covering both curation and analysis. 
    • Help to make code and phenotypes easily accessible and reusable for other researchers, via GitHub and the HDR UK Phenotype Library.  

Support patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) and communications

  • Public contributors review and approve project proposals. 
  • Research is aligned with public and patient priorities.  
  • Support for clear and accessible communication of research findings.  
Projects and research outputs

Projects and research outputs

The CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT consortium follows a collaborative, transparent, and inclusive approach. All analysis plans, protocols, code, phenotype codelists, publications, and other outputs are publicly available.

Explore our collection and read more about the datasets accessed and used in each consortium-approved research project on the Health Data Research Gateway.

Access our GitHub repository and through open-access publications.

Outputs from the CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT Consortium
Data and resources for researchers

Data and resources for researchers

View the interactive CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT Dataset Summary Dashboard

Projects

Active

CCU001: Investigating the effects of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers on COVID-19 outcomes

Reference: CCU001

Project lead(s): Jonathan Sterne, University of Bristol

Start date:

Topic(s): Blood pressure, Hypertension, Treatments, Whole population

View on the HDR UK Gateway

Read more

Active

CCU002: SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination and the risk of vascular events

Reference: CCU002

Project lead(s): William Whiteley, University of Edinburgh

Start date:

Topic(s): COVID vaccination, Inequalities

View on the HDR UK Gateway

Read more

Active

CCU003: Direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in individuals with cardiovascular disease

Reference: CCU003

Project lead(s): Amitava Banerjee, UCL

Start date:

Topic(s): Healthcare delivery, Model, Prediction

View on the HDR UK Gateway

Read more

Browse all projects

Consortium principles, processes, and ways of working

How to submit a project proposal

  1. Join the consortium by agreeing to the Principles of Participation  
  2. Submit a standard project proposal form (available to consortium members)  
  3. The BHF Data Science Centre team will triage for scope, and conduct an initial feasibility and PPIE review  
  4. Proposals are reviewed by the Approvals and Oversight Board  – consisting of representatives from data custodians, data controllers, researchers, and public contributors

Review criteria

  • The project aligns with approvals in place for the programme
  • Clear aims and objectives  
  • No unnecessary duplication of or overlap with existing projects 
  • Feasible based on available datasets  
  • Relevance to patients and the public, and clear language in a plain English summary  
  • Effective plans for patient and public involvement (PPIE)  

The final approval decision lies with the National Data Custodians: NHS England and SAIL Databank.

Full project approval process details.

Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE)

The Approvals and Oversight Board includes six public contributors who ensure research aligns with public interests, and the patient voice is considered and embedded in every project.  

  • Public contributors review project proposals and research outputs
  • In monthly review meetings, researchers and public contributors explore whether research proposals meet the interests of people affected by heart and circulatory disease (and other health conditions) 
  • Address patient and/or public concerns, and advise on best approaches for PPIE throughout the project lifecycle  

Read more about PPIE involvement.  

Membership and ways of working

Join the consortium

Researchers interested in accessing and contributing to CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT are welcome to join.

Consortium Membership

Principles of Participation

Researcher Guidelines

Ways of Working document

Read the protocols

Acknowledgements and open science commitment

  • All manuscripts/reports must be open access  
  • Publications should include: “On behalf of the CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT Consortium”  
  • Correct acknowledgement of funders and data sources  

View full acknowledgement statements.  

Privacy and Data Protection

The CVD-COVID-UK / COVID-IMPACT Privacy Statement outlines:

  • How data is collected, stored, and protected
  • What types of data are accessed
  • How data is used for research

View the Privacy Statement.

 

Areas of work

Find out more about our research focus.

Whole Population Data

We aim to improve access to and use of high-quality, linked health datasets covering entire populations across the UK. 

Read more
See all of our work