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Clinical Informatics and Health Outcomes Research Group (CIHORG)

Clinical Informatics and Health Outcomes Research Group

The Clinical Informatics and Health Outcomes Research Group (CIHORG) is the home of the Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC), one of the world's oldest sentinel networks and is also involved in observational and interventional research. 

CIHORG manages the Oxford-RCGP RSC network of practices, to enable the sharing of high quality data, collect virology, serology and other samples, and recruit practices into research projects.

The group is led by: Simon de Lusignan – Professor of Primary Care & Clinical Informatics, and RSC Director, who can be contacted via Zahn Gowar. Our chief statistician is Mark Joy.

CIHORG is organised into two theme groups:

Oxford-RCGP Research & Surveillance Centre

As one of Europe's oldest general practice sentinel networks, The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) has been the primary source for disease surveillance in England since 1957.

The University of Oxford has hosted the Oxford-RCGP Research and Surveillance Centre since 2019, and is commissioned by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to provide surveillance services, in partnership with RCGP, across general practices in England.

The Oxford-RCGP RSC network has grown significantly since 2020, from approximately 500 to over 2,000 nationally representative general practices in England. The network enables aggregated health related data to be used for regular surveillance reporting to UKHSA (for approximately 40 monitored diseases). The Oxford-RCGP RSC also undertakes research on a project-by-project basis which can include practices in England and the devolved nations.

The scale of the RSC and it capabilities have expanded considerably since 2019, and described in the RSC’s 2023-2024 protocol and recent cohort profile. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to demonstrate the importance of our network in recording high quality data, linking primary care data to virology and other data sources, and providing rapid data access, which would provide benefits for health service planning for future pandemics.

Learn more about the Oxford-RCGP RSC Network

Get to know the Oxford-RCGP Research and Surveillance Centre

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Current Projects

Current projects in addition to disease surveillance include:

Medical Director

Simon de Lusignan

Professor of Primary Care and Clinical Informatics

Contact us

Gibson Building, Radcliffe Observatory, Woodstock Rd, Oxford OX2 6GG

01865 289344

email: simon.delusignanpa@phc.ox.ac.uk

Find us here

Upcoming Events 2025

Upcoming Events 2026

Best Practice Conference

25th & 26th February

London

Our Team

Trials and Prospective Studies

Current and previous studies

Trials and Prospective Studies

Weekly communicable and respiratory disease report

 (via RCGP)

Weekly reports

Latest publications

Latest News

Primary Care Clinical Trials unit partners with Boots to recruit patients where they now seek care

A Boots pharmacy in Durham is recruiting patients to the DURATION trial, testing whether community pharmacies can support clinical research following the NHS Pharmacy First rollout. The pilot could reshape how primary care trials adapt to changing patient pathways.

A photo of Ben and the openSAFELY team, next to the QE prize logo

OpenSAFELY team awarded Queen Elizabeth Prize for Higher and Further Education

Oxford’s OpenSAFELY team wins the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize for revolutionising secure NHS data research, protecting patient privacy while unlocking life-saving health insights.

King's Foundation Scholarships Announced

The Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences is offering fully funded DPhil scholarships in partnership with The King's Foundation to support groundbreaking research at the intersection of nature, community health and individual wellbeing.