Clinical Informatics and Health Outcomes Research Group (CIHORG)
- 01865 289344
- simon.delusignanpa@phc.ox.ac.uk
Data from over 2000 general practices
Produces weekly reports on communicable and respiratory diseases
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 oldest sentinel networks as well as involved in a wide range of observational and interventional research.
The RSC has been involved in the sentinel surveillance of respiratory disease, including influenza and COVID-19, for over 50 years. It is a long standing collaboration between the RCGP and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). The scale of the RSC and it capabilities have expanded considerably since 2013, and described in the RSC’s 2023-2024 protocol and recent cohort profile. The lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic included the importance of our network recording high quality data, linking primary care data to virology and other data sources, and providing rapid data access, if we are to be ready for the next.
The RSC collected pseudonymised data from 2,000 general practice network members and is used for disease surveillance and research. CIHORG has direct links to the RSC member practices who record high quality data, collect virology, serology and other samples, and recruit practices into research projects.
CIHORG is led by: Simon de Lusignan – Professor of Primary Care & Clinical Informatics, who can be contacted via Zahn Gowar. Our chief statistician is Mark Joy.
CIHORG is organised into two theme groups:
Surveillance and infectious disease epidemiology, led by Uy Hoang, with project management provided by Karina O’Neill and Dominic Dunn (laboratory links).
Cardiometabolic research is lead by Jose Ordonez-Mena, with project management provided by Filipa Ferreira.
Current Projects
Current projects in addition to disease surveillance include:
- ObservatARI study of intensive surveillance of acute respiratory infections (ARI) in primary care with a focus on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
- The Third study of Intestinal Infectious Disease (IID3). Food Standards agency sponsored study of IID across the UK.
Contact us
Email us:
simon.delusignanpa@phc.ox.ac.uk
Gibson Building, Radcliffe Observatory,
Woodstock Rd, Oxford OX2 6GG
Our Team
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Simon de Lusignan
Professor of Primary Care and Clinical Informatics
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José M. Ordóñez-Mena
Senior Medical Statistician
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Gunjan Jiwnani
SQL Developer
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Rosalind Goudie
Senior SQL Developer
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Uy Hoang
Research Fellow
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Cecilia Okusi
Data Scientist & SQL Developer
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Mili Muraleedharan
Operations Manager, Data team
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Mark Joy
Senior Statistician
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Bernardo Meza-Torres
Researcher
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Elizabeth Button
Practice Liaison Team Lead
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Karin Andre
Practice Liaison Officer
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Sneha Anand
Project Manager
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William Elson
Doctoral Clinical Research Fellow
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Filipa Ferreira
Senior Project Manager
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Gavin Jamie
Clinical Phenotype Group Lead
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Xinchun Gu
Researcher
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Rachel Byford
Lead Data Architect
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William Hinton
Research Fellow
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Jack Macartney
Practice Liaison Officer / Research Facilitator
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Timea Suli
Practice Liaison Officer | Research Facilitator
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Jessica Smylie
Practice Liaison Officer
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Xuejuan Fan
SQL Developer/Data Scientist
Trials and Prospective Studies
Current and previous studies
Weekly communicable and respiratory disease report
(via RCGP)
Surveillance
Research and surveillance centre
RCGP RSC virology practices dashboard
RCGP RSC virology practices sampling and detection of influenza and other monitored viruses.
Latest publications
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Journal article
Underwood S. et al, (2025), The Lancet Regional Health - Europe, 52
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Journal article
Chan A-W. et al, (2025), Nat Med
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Journal article
Hróbjartsson A. et al, (2025), BMJ, 389
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Preprint
Wark PA. et al, (2025)
Latest News
Child heart disease may be more likely if mother has anaemia during pregnancy
23 April 2025
New research shows the chance of a child having congenital heart disease increases if the mother is anaemic during pregnancy.
Addressing healthcare workforce challenges with new research partnership
9 April 2025
Researchers from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences are part of a major new research initiative aimed at tackling critical workforce challenges in healthcare, particularly in underserved communities.