Publications by authors named "Jessica Morley"
Article Synopsis
- The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted cardiovascular disease management in England, particularly affecting blood pressure screening and hypertension management.
- A study analyzed data from 25.2 million NHS patients, showing a decline in blood pressure screening from 90% in March 2019 to 85% in March 2023, while hypertension prevalence remained stable at about 15%.
- Treatment percentages for hypertension also dropped significantly during the pandemic, with patients aged ≤79 years treated to target falling from 71% to 47% and those aged ≥80 years from 85% to 58% before showing signs of recovery.
Article Synopsis
- AI is revolutionizing cardiovascular care and research by introducing advanced diagnostic tools, digital biomarkers, and quality evaluation systems.
- These innovations aim to increase access to cardiovascular screening and monitoring, particularly for underserved populations lacking specialized care.
- The review discusses the potential for personalized and effective treatments through AI advancements while emphasizing the necessary precautions and strategies to ensure successful implementation in healthcare.
Article Synopsis
- Obesity and rapid weight gain are linked to severe disease from COVID-19, with societal changes during the pandemic affecting health behaviors like nutrition and exercise, contributing to weight gain.
- A study analyzed healthcare records of over 17 million adults in England to assess weight gain before and during the pandemic, classifying individuals based on their rates of weight change and identifying those with significant increases.
- Using logistic regression, researchers examined various factors (age, sex, deprivation level, ethnicity) associated with rapid weight gain and the acceleration of weight gain during COVID-19.
Background: The UK delivered its first "booster" COVID-19 vaccine doses in September 2021, initially to individuals at high risk of severe disease, then to all adults. The BNT162b2 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was used initially, then also Moderna mRNA-1273.
Methods: With the approval of the National Health Service England, we used routine clinical data to estimate the effectiveness of boosting with BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 compared with no boosting in eligible adults who had received two primary course vaccine doses.
Objectives: Risk stratification tools that predict healthcare utilisation are extensively integrated into primary care systems worldwide, forming a key component of anticipatory care pathways, where high-risk individuals are targeted by preventative interventions. Existing work broadly focuses on comparing model performance in retrospective cohorts with little attention paid to efficacy in reducing morbidity when deployed in different global contexts. We review the evidence supporting the use of such tools in real-world settings, from retrospective dataset performance to pathway evaluation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Electronic health records (EHRs) are essential for researching medical products and informing public health, but reproducibility in EHR research is a significant challenge.
- OpenSAFELY is an open-source software platform created during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve the reproducibility of research using EHRs by standardizing workflows and ensuring consistent computational environments.
- The platform promotes transparency by enforcing code-sharing, providing an audit trail for data usage, and integrating tools that support reproducible research practices.
Background: The English NHS data opt-out allows people to prevent use of their health data for purposes other than direct care. In 2021, the number of opt-outs increased in response to government-led proposals to create a centralised pseudonymised primary care record database.
Aim: To describe the potential impact of NHS national data opt-outs in 2021 on health data research.
Article Synopsis
- The UK government has been pushing for better transparency in clinical trials since 2017, prompting public research institutions to adapt their internal policies and practices to meet these demands.
- The study involved semi-structured interviews with staff from UK universities and NHS Trusts, revealing that while new procedures for transparency are mostly in place, challenges still persist.
- The findings emphasize that strong governance in transparency is crucial, with universities and hospitals needing to work together to ensure research complies with regulatory standards, offering lessons for other regions looking to enhance their own transparency efforts.
Background: COVID-19 pandemic restrictions may have influenced behaviours related to weight.
Aim: To describe patterns of weight change among adults living in England with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and/or hypertension during the pandemic.
Design And Setting: An observational cohort study using the routinely collected health data of approximately 40% of adults living in England, accessed through the OpenSAFELY service inside TPP.
Objective: To identify the availability of results for trials registered on the European Union Clinical Trials Register (EUCTR) compared with other dissemination routes to understand its value as a results repository.
Design: Cross sectional audit study.
Setting: EUCTR protocols and results sections, data extracted 1-3 December 2020.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic affected how care was delivered to vulnerable patients, such as those with dementia or learning disability.
Objective: To explore whether this affected antipsychotic prescribing in at-risk populations.
Methods: With the approval of NHS England, we completed a retrospective cohort study, using the OpenSAFELY platform to explore primary care data of 59 million patients.
Article Synopsis
- - The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted NHS primary care services, leading to the creation of the OpenSAFELY Service Restoration Observatory (SRO) to track clinical activity trends throughout this period.
- - An open-source data management framework was developed to analyze electronic health records from 48 million adults, focusing on key measures like blood pressure monitoring and asthma reviews from January 2019 to December 2021.
- - While most clinical activities showed signs of recovery by April 2021, some measures like medication and blood pressure reviews continued to experience notable reductions, indicating lasting impacts from the pandemic.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination programme in England was extended to include all adolescents and children by April 2022. The aim of this paper is to describe trends and variation in vaccine coverage in different clinical and demographic groups amongst adolescents and children in England by August 2022. With the approval of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To implement complex, PINCER (pharmacist led information technology intervention) prescribing indicators, on a national scale with general practice data to describe the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on safe prescribing.
Design: Population based, retrospective cohort study using federated analytics.
Setting: Electronic general practice health record data from 56.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigated how different demographic and clinical groups experienced varying mortality risks related to COVID-19 across five pandemic waves in England, using data from the OpenSAFELY platform.
- A total of nearly 19 million adults were analyzed across each wave, with significant trends showing a decrease in crude COVID-19-related death rates from the first wave to the fifth.
- The highest standardized death rates were found among older adults and those with certain health conditions, such as advanced kidney disease or dementia, especially in the first wave of the pandemic.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare activity across a broad range of clinical services. The NHS stopped non-urgent work in March 2020, later recommending services be restored to near-normal levels before winter where possible.
Aim: To describe changes in the volume and variation of coded clinical activity in general practice across six clinical areas: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health, female and reproductive health, screening and related procedures, and processes related to medication.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to determine patient eligibility and describe the coverage of antiviral drugs and neutralising monoclonal antibodies (nMAB) as treatments for COVID-19 in community settings in England.
- A retrospective analysis was conducted on data from 23.4 million people, focusing on outpatients with COVID-19 who were at high risk for severe outcomes between December 2021 and April 2022.
- Out of 93,870 high-risk patients identified, only 19,040 (20%) received treatment, with variations in treatment rates based on factors like age, ethnic background, risk group, and NHS region.
Objective: To compare the effectiveness of the BNT162b2 mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) covid-19 vaccines during the booster programme in England.
Design: Matched cohort study, emulating a comparative effectiveness trial.
Setting: Linked primary care, hospital, and covid-19 surveillance records available within the OpenSAFELY-TPP research platform, covering a period when the SARS-CoV-2 delta and omicron variants were dominant.