TPP to help out with Covid-19 clinical trial initiative

GP IT supplier TPP has partnered with the Oxford RCGP RSC initiative to run clinical trials to address the Covid-19 emergency.

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) based at the University of Oxford is one of Europe’s oldest surveillance systems and is turning its attention to how general practice might help mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A letter from TPP, the RCGP and the University of Oxford is being sent to all 2,600 practices in England that currently use SystmOne.

This partnership will enable clinical trials of selected medicines that might reduce the duration and severity of Covid-19 including hospital admission and mortality.

The RCGP RSC initiative will allow GPs using TPP SystmOne to recruit patients into the trials and then access information entered via participants using the Airmid app which was launched in March 2020.

By combining patient collected data, combined with the medical record, the researchers at Oxford will be able to determine the efficacy of certain medicines.

Simon de Lusignan, director of the Oxford RCGP RSC, said: “We already have over 100 practices taking part in the national flu virology surveillance scheme every year in collaboration with Public Health England. We are urgently increasing this to 300 practices.

“However, without the support of more practices, we will struggle to recruit the numbers needed for clinical trials.”

Interested practices should contact practiceenquiries@phc.ox.ac.uk to opt in to the clinical trials.