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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Uy Hoang
Research Fellow
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Cecilia Okusi
Data Scientist & SQL Developer
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Bernardo Meza-Torres
Researcher
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Mili Muraleedharan
Operations Manager, Data team
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Mark Joy
Senior Statistician
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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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Rachel Byford
Lead Data Architect
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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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William Hinton
Research Fellow
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Gunjan Jiwnani
SQL Developer
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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
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Rosalind Goudie
Senior SQL Developer
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Zahn Gowar
Executive Assistant to Prof Simon de Lusignan
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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A Heterogeneity Analysis of Health-related Quality of Life in Early Adults Born Very Preterm or Very Low Birthweight across the Sociodemographic Spectrum
Journal article
Bolbocean CORNELIU. et al, (2025), Social Science and Medicine
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Benchmarking transformer-based models for medical record deidentification: A single centre, multi-specialty evaluation
Preprint
Kuo R. et al, (2025)
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Is It Cost-Effective to Induce Labour Early to Prevent Shoulder Dystocia? Evidence From the Big Baby Trial.
Journal article
Naghdi S. et al, (2025), BJOG
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Induction of labour versus standard care to prevent shoulder dystocia in fetuses suspected to be large for gestational age in the UK (the Big Baby trial): a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial.
Journal article
Gardosi J. et al, (2025), Lancet
Latest News
Celebrating excellence in early career research: Jienchi Doward and Kelly Birtwell recognised for their contributions to primary care
9 May 2025
Two researchers connected to the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences have received national recognition for their outstanding contributions to primary care research.
Beyond the Ivory Tower event: Participants explore what it means to decolonise global health
8 May 2025
Green Templeton College recently hosted a powerful event, building on the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences 12-part 'Decolonising Global Health' blog series. The event brought together voices from the Global South to share their experiences, challenge entrenched power dynamics and explore practical strategies for creating more equitable health systems.