Overview

This section provides contextual information on the core primary care EHR systems inside which OpenSAFELY is built (currently TPP and EMIS), as well as all external datasets imported to the secure EHR environment. To learn about querying the data, refer to the documentation on ehrQL.

View information on available datasets.

What is primary care data?

The core patient-level data used within OpenSAFELY is based on electronic GP records that are collected and securely stored to facilitate patient management by healthcare providers. They capture symptoms, test results, diagnoses, prescriptions, onward referrals, demographic and social characteristics, and so on. Essentially, everything about a patient that is electronically recorded or accessed by GPs.

GP records, or primary care records, can also be used for conducting health research, which is what OpenSAFELY was built for. We've made a video to help explain primary care data in more detail; essential viewing if you're new to this domain.