Collaboration with Public Health Scotland brings awards
The EAVE II team, led by Professor Aziz Sheikh, Usher Institute Director, is a close collaboration with Public Health Scotland - publishing important contributions to help our understanding of COVID-19.
The EAVE II (or 'Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19') team have successfully tracked the COVID-19 pandemic in near real-time, as well as the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines, across Scotland. They have done this using a rich dataset of all 5.4 million people registered with a GP in Scotland, almost the entire Scottish population. This has resulted in impactful findings that have been central to the Scottish and UK governments’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Close collaboration
A close collaboration between Scottish universities and Public Health Scotland underpins the success of this study, enabling rapid analysis of securely held data by trained researchers - with results feeding directly into the pandemic response.
Health Data Research UK - Open Access Publication of the Month
Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) have been supportive of this work - and been involved in a number of connected projects, including two funded as part of the National Core Study - Data and Connectivity, which have been busily replicating and extending EAVE II findings in other UK nations.
In January's review of published papers and pre-prints, the HDR UK Early Career Committee considered dozens of articles made open access. They were ranked against core pillars of the HDR UK ethos: research quality, team science, scale, open science, patient and public involvement, patient impact, and equality, diversity and inclusion.
The winning publication was one from the EAVE II team - External validation of the QCovid risk prediction algorithm for risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and mortality in adults: national validation cohort study in Scotland - led by Simpson et al. This was the first national external validation of the QCovid algorithm for COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths.
External validation of QCovid risk prediction algorithm - Plain English Summary and link to paper
The EAVE II collaboration has also been highlighted for praise from the ECR committee due to the frequency and high quality of the work they have been outputting. Our Early Career Committee would like to congratulate and commend this team for their contribution to HDR UK’s vision of uniting the UK’s health data to enable discoveries that improve people’s lives.
We are delighted that this study has been recognised by Health Data Research UK as world-leading in its potential to positively impact on patients and the public.
It is just one example of many research collaborations Public Health Scotland has carried out during the pandemic with our partners at the University of Edinburgh, the findings of which have helped shape both Scotland’s and the global response to COVID-19.
Public Health Scotland would like to take this opportunity to thank all our research partners, who we continue to work with to produce timely analysis.
Related links
Open Access paper of the month - January 2022 - HDR UK website
QCovid risk prediction algorithm
EAVE II Connected Project: Data and Connectivity - COVID-19 vaccines pharmacovigilance