RCGP RSC | ORCHID ::: Oxford-RCGP RSC

RCGP Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC)

The RCGP Research and Surveillance Centre’s (RSC) extensive network of spotter practices currently extracts data from over >500 practices throughout England. The aim of the surveillance scheme is to provide a timely picture of consultations by diagnosis with sentinel GPs in England. Prof. Simon de Lusignan is the Medical Director of the RCGP Research and Surveillance Centre.

The incidence data provides the College, Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health with early warning of changes in the incidence of common illnesses presenting to general practice surgeries, particularly important for illnesses such as influenza like-illness and incidence rates for acute illnesses, as detailed in the RCGP’s weekly Communicable and Respiratory Disease Report for England.

The map below outlines the location of each of the RSC practices. It is visible that they are broadly distributed across England, with a higher concentration of practices in London, and a slightly lower number in the southwest and east of England.

All RCGP Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) practices are part of the Public Health England (PHE) surveillance system. Your data are used for anticipated and unanticipated surveillance. Any practice in our network welcome to become involved in RCGP RSC virology surveillance system. Our best known activity is surveillance for influenza, which provides Public Health England (PHE) valuable information about any impending flu epidemic, and about the coverage and effectiveness of UK vaccination programmes. New members to the network and existing virology practices can follow our virology networks surveillance activity by following the third link below or click here RCGP RSC virology practices dashboard.

In participating in the RSC network, your practice would be making a valuable contribution to public health and to research within your College. Furthermore, you will be receiving various individually tailored data quality feedbacks on various aspects of your coding.

Current RSC activities are mainly focussed on the development of integrated clinical and virological surveillance, the practical value of which has been demonstrated in relation to influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and defining the benefit-risk influenza vaccination. This network uniquely brings together: (1) The computerised medical record, which includes reports of flu-like illnesses; (2) Vaccination history (as far is available in the GP record); and (3) Microbiological samples which inform whether a person truly has the condition in question (most of our surveillance is for flu) or not. This work provides a model for further development of integrated surveillance in other areas of medical care and vaccine preventable diseases, as well as for monitoring antibiotic resistance patterns.

The core work is funded by Public Health England, with other research and surveillance conducted in collaboration with a range of research and surveillance organisations some working across Europe. As a contributory practice to the RCGP RSC network, you may, in the future, have the opportunity to participate in new projects, such as the monitoring of vaccination programmes and emergence of antibiotic resistance.

Levels of membership

There are two levels of membership:

RCGP Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) Member –Practices providing data, and undergoing data quality (DQ) assessment
Microbiological sample providing practices (MSPP) – Practices providing microbiological samples as part of our surveillance programmes, as well as high quality data. Most will be providing nasal and throat swabs (“swabbing practices”) for influenza surveillance; though we also are involved in programmes relating to surveillance for gastrointestinal infectious disease. Members of these programmes will have completed the online learning relevant to the programmes they participate in.

To express interest, please email practiceenquiries@phc.ox.ac.uk

Research and Surveillance Centre – a cohort profile

The RSC is a representative network, having only small differences with the national population, which have now been quantified and can be assessed for clinical relevance for specific studies.

Why the RSC dataset is unique?

Freshness– with twice weekly data extractions, the dataset is one of the most up to date in the UK
Good quality– The practices in the network receive continuous feedback and education regarding accurate coding in the patient’s electronic health record
Capability for data linkage
Representativeness- The RCGP RSC is representative of the English population on a variety of domains, both demographic and clinical

Weekly return report for communicable and respiratory diseases

Most recent weekly report can be downloaded in the web page below

View latest reports

RCGP RSC Network Intelligence Observatory

RCGP RSC practice members have access to personalised dashboard, which shows an aggregated version of their data by week and compared with the rest of the network.

View dashboard

RCGP RSC Virology Weekly Return

RCGP RSC virology practices sampling and detection of influenza and other monitored viruses.

View dashboard

RCGP RSC Serology Weekly Return

RCGP RSC serology practices sampling and detection of influenza and other monitored viruses.

View dashboard