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Clinical Informatics and Health Outcomes Research Group (CIHORG)

  • digital-data-ai
  • infection-respiratory

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. The CIHORG is composed of researcher fellows, statisticians, data curators, SQL developers, practice liaison officers and project managers. The teams research interests are in clinical informatics, which include disease surveillance, quality improvement (QI), measuring health outcomes from routine data, incorporating technology into clinical workflow, and new technology enabled roles in health care.  Developing more robust methods of collecting and harnessing real world evidence (RWE). 

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

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Vapes help more people quit smoking than other methods, Oxford-led Cochrane review finds

An updated Cochrane review led by Oxford researchers finds nicotine e-cigarettes help more people quit smoking than nicotine patches and gum, behavioural support or no support. The living review now includes 80 trials and nearly 30,000 participants.

Learning creatively: MSc in Applied Digital Health students bring AI concepts to life

Students on the MSc in Applied Digital Health translated their learning about AI into a range of creative projects, using performance, storytelling and collaboration to communicate complex concepts while developing communication and digital health skills.

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Study of 3,400 children links London's Ultra Low Emission Zone with improved lung growth

The proportion of London children with clinically impaired lung function fell from around one in seven to one in 11 over five years following the introduction of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), according to a major five-year study jointly led by researchers from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford.