Research Questions
CVD-COVID-UK aims to enable research focused on COVID-19 and heart and circulatory disease, while COVID-IMPACT broadens this out to include other health conditions. Both projects aim to answer three broad questions:
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?
Projects
CCU059
Which combinations of Multiple Long-Term Conditions (MLTC) are associated with the greatest risk of hospital admission over the winter season, and to what extent does COVID-19…
CCU060
Improving characterisation, prediction and intervention for COVID- and influenza-related morbidity and mortality
CCU073
Impact of COVID-19 on the association between Type 2 diabetes and incidence of cardiovascular diseases
CCU074
Improving the accuracy, equity and efficiency of using healthcare systems data for recruitment to a clinical trial involving people with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes
CCU081
Investigating the impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular and thromboembolic events in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies and the incidence of connective tissue diseases
Research outputs
Click on the link below to view the latest list of papers and preprints produced on behalf of the CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT Consortium, supported by the BHF Data Science Centre.
In line with the consortium’s principles – based on a collaborative, transparent and inclusive ethos – all related analysis plans, protocols, code, phenotype code lists and reports are made publicly available via the centre’s collection on the HDR UK Gateway, repositories in the centre’s GitHub organisation and through open-access publications.
Datasets and data access
Accredited researchers, working on one or more of the consortium’s approved projects, can access routinely collected datasets across the whole population of the UK within secure trusted research environments (TREs) provided by NHS England in England, the National Data Safe Haven in Scotland, the SAIL Databank in Wales and the Honest Broker Service in Northern Ireland.
View the latest CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT TRE dataset provisioning list here.
Linkable datasets include those from primary and secondary care, COVID lab tests and vaccinations, deaths, critical care, prescribing/dispensing, cardiovascular and stroke audits, maternity services and mental health.
Further detail about each of the the datasets available to the consortium in the respective TREs, including technical metadata, can be found in the consortium’s collection on the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway (the Gateway).
Any enquiries about accessing data in the TREs should be made via the Gateway enquiry form or by contacting us.
Read the protocol for CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT here.
Ways of working
Consortium membership and principles
An inclusive, open and transparent consortium has been established to work on CVD-COVID-UK / COVID-IMPACT projects. The consortium has over 400 members across more than 50 institutions including data custodians, data scientists with methodological and analytical expertise (statisticians, epidemiologists, health informaticians, bioinformaticians, computer scientists and others), and clinicians (including cardiologists, stroke physicians, vascular surgeons and others) – all of whom have signed up to an agreed set of principles.
If you’re interested in becoming a member of the consortium, please e-mail: bhfdsc@hdruk.ac.uk for more details.
Ways of working document
Please refer to the ways of working document for detail on how the CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT programme is managed.
Project governance and approvals
Consortium members can submit project proposals, using our standard form, to the CVD-COVID-UK / COVID-IMPACT Approvals & Oversight Board. Proposals must either be within the scope of the ethical and regulatory approvals for CVD-COVID-UK, which covers the relationship between cardiovascular disease and COVID-19, or for COVID-IMPACT, which covers the relationship between COVID-19 and other health conditions, and their related risk factors.
The Approvals & Oversight Board consists of representatives from data custodians, data controllers, researchers and public contributors. It is coordinated by BHF Data Science Centre’s core team and chaired by the BHF Data Science Centre Operations Director. The Board reviews submitted proposals (a process which includes a meeting between the project lead and public contributors – see the PPIE section below) to ensure that the:
- Project falls within the scope of the approvals in place for CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT and is feasible using the available data sources/environments;
- Stated aims and objectives are clear;
- The project doesn’t unnecessarily overlap with existing projects;
- Requested data sources are either currently available in the TRE(s) or will be in the future (including whether there is sufficient coverage within specific datasets);
- Data source requests align with the project’s needs;
- The project is of relevance to patients and the public;
- Language used within the plain English summary is clear;
- There are adequate plans in place for PPIE.
Once reviewed, proposals are either approved, approved with conditions or rejected. In some cases, project leads will be encouraged to collaborate with and perform their analyses as part of one of the approved projects.
CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT project approval process can be seen here.
For any queries regarding project governance and approvals, please e-mail: bhfdsc@hdruk.ac.uk
Public and patient involvement and engagement (PPIE)
The CVD-COVID-UK / COVID-IMPACT Approvals & Oversight Board membership includes five public contributors who ensure that the public/patient voice is considered and embedded appropriately in our projects.
The public contributors review and discuss project proposals (and research outputs) with researchers to ensure work being carried out meets the interests of people affected by heart and circulatory disease or other health conditions, to address any patient and/or public concerns, and to advise on best approaches for patient and public involvement throughout the project lifecycle.
Meetings with the public contributors are planned for the dates listed below (all meetings take place between 09:30-11:00 and you will be assigned a 30-minute slot) and new project proposals should be submitted a minimum of 2 weeks before these dates to allow sufficient time for triage by the centre and review by the public contributors, prior to the meeting:
- 16 May 2024
- 20 June 2024
- 18 July 2024
- 15 August 2024
- 19 September 2024
- 17 October 2024
- 21 November 2024
Privacy statement
The CVD-COVID-UK / COVID-IMPACT privacy statement explains how the partners involved in the consortium collect, store, manage and protect your personal data. It outlines the types of data that are accessed and how we use them.
Acknowledgments
To appropriately acknowledge our funders and recognise the use of patient data in the respective TREs, the relevant statements should be included in our research outputs and publications.
The CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT acknowledgment statements can be viewed here.
In line with our principles:
- Manuscripts/reports must be published with open access
- Publications must be written ‘on behalf of the CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT Consortium’
Areas of work
Find out more about our research focus.
Whole Population Data
Better use of nationally-collated, structured, coded data: accessing, improving and using linked, national, population-wide health data.
Read more