Population health data system used as part of Covid government research

The Cheshire & Merseyside Combined Intelligence for Population Health Action (CIPHA) system has been used help allow events to reopen.

The solution, which is based on Graphnet Health’s CareCentric, was used at a recent club night at Circus and Sefton Park music festival.

The Liverpool events are part of the government’s events research programme, which means they are exempt from the wider Covid regulations, including the rule of six. Results gathered from the programme will inform government policy on the reopening of events.

CIPHA, which was funded by NHSX, is being used to match Covid test results with ticket purchases to inform research and ensure any transmission of the virus is properly monitored. People buying tickets for the events must register their details for the data to flow to CIPHA.

As a condition of entry, every ticket holder is required to have a lateral flow test conducted at an approved test centre with a negative result. Ticket holders also have PCR tests after the event. This data is then available for research.

Gary Leeming from CIPHA, and director of the Liverpool City region civic data cooperative, said: “Being able to manage the data for research in this way has been critical for the national event management programme and we were really pleased that we were able to respond so quickly.”

Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care System developed the CIPHA platform to underpin its Covid-19 responses, enabling world-firsts such as the Liverpool community mass testing pilot. The programme is run in partnership between the region’s NHS, local authorities and University of Liverpool.

The cloud-based system links health and care information on 2.5m people drawn from all parts of the system, including from acute trusts, general practice, community and mental health trusts, local authorities and 999 and 111 services.

This means the Graphnet software is used by around 1,000 people across the patch, and daily situation reports are circulated widely.

Brian Waters, chief executive of Graphnet, added: “The CIPHA programme is right at the forefront of thinking about the collection and use of data to support local and national initiatives to combat coronavirus – both operationally and in terms of scientific research. We are delighted to be working alongside the CIPHA teams.”