A new collection of 13 ADR Wales Data Explained reports supports linked data researchers in better understanding a range of Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) data sources, enabling their potential use, understanding and considerations involved in working with them.
The reports form part of ongoing work by ADR Wales, SAIL Databank and its data partners to make administrative and health data more accessible and useful for research.
The Data Explained series is designed to provide researchers with practical information about data available for approved research. Rather than simply describing the information held, the reports explore how data are collected, considerations for how they can be used, examples of research applications, known limitations, and opportunities to improve data quality and documentation. This work is particularly important for research where routinely-collected data can provide valuable population-level evidence about disease, treatment, healthcare use and health inequalities.
All data sources covered by the series are available through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, the national trusted research environment (TRE) for Wales, where approved researchers can securely access de-identified data for research after approval from the independent group that assesses all applications to SAIL, the Information Governance Review Panel (IGRP). The 13 data sources covered in the Data Explained series include:
- ADBE – Annual District Births Extract
- ADDE – Annual District Death Extract
- CAPD – Postponed Admitted Procedures
- CCDS – Critical Care Data Set
- DATW – Diagnostic and Therapy Services Waiting Times
- EDDS – Emergency Department Dataset
- MIDS – Maternity Indicators Data Set
- NCCH – National Community Child Health
- OPDW – Outpatient Database for Wales
- OPRD – Outpatient Referral
- PEDW – Patient Episode Database for Wales
- RTTD – Referral to Treatment Times
- WDSD – Welsh Demographic Service Dataset.