BREATHE - The Health Data Research Hub for Respiratory Health: against COVID-19 ^Hub

BREATHE - The Health Data Research (HDR UK) Hub for Respiratory Health
https://www.ed.ac.uk/usher/breathe

BREATHE will enable high quality research and cutting-edge innovation to improve the lives of people living with respiratory conditions, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the UK.
Lead organisation: The University of Edinburgh

1. Project: COVID-19 Symptom Study App.

Summary: The COVID-19 Symptom Study app has been developed by health science company ZOE and it is endorsed by the Welsh Government, NHS Wales, the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland. 3,723,122 participants have downloaded the app and are using it to regularly report on their health, making it the largest public science project of its kind anywhere in the world. App data is being analysed by ZOE research teams in collaboration with King's College London researchers. Other supporters include Cancer Research UK, Royal College of Surgeons of England, Royal College of General Practitioners, Age UK, Royal College of Physicians, Kidney Care UK, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), Alzheimer's Research UK, Active Ageing, JDRF, Versus Arthritis, Diabetes UK, CART and Longevity UK.

The data from the COVID-19 Symptom Tracker app developed by ZOE is being sent to the NHS to support the response to the pandemic. Deidentified data (app data with any identifiable information removed) from the COVID-19 Symptom Study app is also arriving into Swansea University's SAIL Databank on a daily basis. Requests to access the data for research purposes can be made via the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway. To ensure that the data has maximum impact in a short timeframe, they are accelerating requests from the NHS or those with anticipated direct impact to the COVID-19 response. At the same time, this de-identified data from the COVID-19 Symptom Tracker app is being used by BREATHE – the Health Data Research Hub for Respiratory Health to inform national responses to the pandemic across the UK. This project is a collaboration between Swansea University and SAIL Databank, King’s College London, health technology company ZOE, BREATHE – the Health Data Research Hub for Respiratory Health, and is supported by Health Data Research UK.

Developed by researchers at King’s College London and ZOE, the COVID-19 monitoring app has already been downloaded by nearly 2 million ‘stay-at-home scientists’ across the UK who are using it to track their daily health and any potential coronavirus symptoms. The app is also widely being used by healthcare and hospital workers. The app acts like an early-warning radar system, providing vital information about the symptoms and spread of COVID-19. In turn, this supports the effective deployment of limited NHS resources such as healthcare personnel, testing kits or ventilators to where they are most likely to be needed.

Regular downloads of anonymised data from the app will be securely delivered through BREATHE – the Health Data Research Hub for Respiratory Health into SAIL Databank, making it accessible to NHS decision-makers and academic researchers. This also means that the app data can be linked together with other COVID-19 datasets generated by the NHS digital transformation unit, NHSX, and others.

The research teams at King’s College London are continually analysing the data to generate new insights about the disease and its progression. For example, they have discovered that loss of smell or taste are more likely to be an early symptom of COVID-19 than fever. Frequent science updates and maps showing the top-level geographical distribution of symptoms around the UK are available at covid.joinzoe.com.

At BREATHE, they have enable the ethical and safe use of the app data by other researchers and decision-making bodies to tackle the pandemic in the UK. They are doing this by: providing a place where data can be securely stored and accessed; managing the process by which people can access the data, with a fast-track process for requests from the NHS and those which may have a direct impact to the COVID-19 response; examining the data for trends and patterns, and passing this information directly to governments and emergency COVID-19 committees across the UK, keeping them up to speed on the latest information to support the management of the virus across the UK.

Category: Project

Name of project/reference: COVID-19 symptom tracker app

Key project contact: Zoe

Key BREATHE contact: Chris Orton

Brief description: Hosting of data for the COVID-19 Symptom tracker Developed by KCL/Zoe with >2m users and >500K regular users (SAIL databank) and convening a skilled analysis team (Aziz).

Likely resource implication: SAIL Databank, BREATHE

Notes / current state:Live

Data depositing? Yes

Data accessing? Yes

Analysis? Yes

Comments: Tracker app sub-projects underway across various institutions (universities, councils, hospitals, Government agencies etc.)

2.
Project: COVID-19 Phenomics

Recording COVID-19 related events in electronic health records
Electronic health records are digital records of a patient’s health and care. When small amounts of data from many patients are linked up and pooled, researchers and doctors can look for patterns. This information can be used to plan local services and research new treatments.
Variations in how information is recorded in electronic health records can make this process hard.
Using a standard set of identifiers, to describe things like symptoms and treatments, helps to ensure records are consistent and enables their use in health data research.
BREATHE has contributed to the development of a standard set of definitions and codes, used to record COVID-19 related events in electronic health records.
https://www.ed.ac.uk/usher/breathe/latest/covid-19
https://covid19-phenomics.org/#section-primary-care-terms

3.
Project: The COVIDENCE study: Identifying who is most at risk from COVID-19
COVIDENCE is a new study which will help identify who is most at risk of contracting COVID-19 and why some people become more ill than others with the disease.
The study aims to recruit a diverse group of at least 12,000 people, including those who have already had proven or suspected COVID-19, and a mixture of people both with and without underlying conditions (such as diabetes, lung disease, heart disease and high blood pressure). The information gathered will help scientists to understand why certain people appear to be at greater risk.
The study, which will run for up to five years, will also create a platform to fast-track future trials of preventative treatments, to see if they help to protect against COVID-19.
BREATHE Director, Professor Aziz Sheikh, is Scotland Lead for the project.
https://www.qmul.ac.uk/covidence/

.Category:Project
.Hub:BREATHE
.Name of project/reference:COVIDENCE
.Key project contact:Adrian Martineau (PI)
.Key BREATHE contact:Aziz / Chris Griffiths
.Brief description:
.Source of Funding:
.Likely resource implication:
.Notes / current state:Press release drafted - date TBC
.Data depositing?: Yes
.Data accessing?
.Analysis?:
.Core/enabled/affiliated/discussions ongoing:
.Stage (New project/proposal, approved BREATHE activity, passed to another HDR UK Alliance member or hub, Inappropriate/rejected: APPROVED - NOW BREATHE project
.Papers/Outputs:
.Key comms contacts:QMUL press office Abigail Chard <abigail@campuspr.co.uk>
.Comments:

4.
Project: The EAVE II study: Using healthcare records to track the progress of COVID-19 in Scotland
This study will track the progress of the COVID-19 epidemic in near real time, using healthcare records of 1.2 million people in Scotland to form a more complete picture of the effect COVID-19 is having upon people's health.
Scotland is uniquely placed to allow this type of research due to the rich dataset generated via the Community Health Index (CHI) number - a distinctive identifier assigned to each person in Scotland registered with the NHS. The Community Health Index (CHI) number connects information on each hospital admission, accident and emergency visit, laboratory test results and prescriptions.
BREATHE analysts will be examining the data for patterns and trends.
This process will help to identify the clinical features of the pandemic and, in due course, provide estimates of the effectiveness of any vaccines and anti-viral therapies.
https://www.ed.ac.uk/usher/news-events/news-2020/data-harnessed-reveal-covid-19-spread-real-time

Category:Project
Hub:BREATHE
Name of project/reference:EAVE II
Key project contact:Aziz (PI)
Key BREATHE contact:Aziz (Ele Vasileiou - analyst)
Brief description:Scottish national surveillance study
Source of Funding:MRC
Likely resource implication:BREATHE Comms - press release | Analayst (Ele, Edinburgh)
Notes / current state:Press release drafted - date TBC
Data depositing?: Yes
Data accessing?
Analysis?:Yes
Core/enabled/affiliated/discussions ongoing:
Stage (New project/proposal, approved BREATHE activity, passed to another HDR UK Alliance member or hub, Inappropriate/rejected: APPROVED - NOW BREATHE project
Papers/Outputs:
Key comms contacts:UoE press office
Comments:

Category:Project
Hub:BREATHE
Name of project/reference: ELVIS-COVID19
Key project contact:Aziz (PI)
Key BREATHE contact:Aziz (Ele Vasileiou - analyst)
Brief description:Hypertonic saline work
Source of Funding:
Likely resource implication:BREATHE Comms - to promote study recruitment
Notes / current state:
Data depositing?:
Data accessing?
Analysis?:
Core/enabled/affiliated/discussions ongoing:
Stage (New project/proposal, approved BREATHE activity, passed to another HDR UK Alliance member or hub, Inappropriate/rejected: APPROVED - NOW BREATHE project
Papers/Outputs:
Key comms contacts:UoE press office
Comments:

.Category:Coordination
.Hub:BREATHE
.Name of project/reference: Longitudinal Population Studies (LPS) COVID-19 coordination (Wellcome, MRC, HDR UK)
.Key project contact:
.Key BREATHE contact:Martin, David
.Brief description: BREATHE helping to coordinate: (i) harmonised COVID-19 initial/serial questionnaires across studies (Martin); (ii) develop strategy around serology (Martin); (iii) improved data linkage (Martin, David, others?) (iv) to improve COVID-19 research in under-represented groups including minority ethnic communities
.Source of Funding:
.Likely resource implication:
.Notes / current state: Data Linkage needs more discussion on our next call, David/Chris working on linkage to symptom trackers but other important data sources too – PHE, ICNARC, fast refreshes of HES, primary care
.Data depositing?:
.Data accessing?
.Analysis?:
.Core/enabled/affiliated/discussions ongoing:
.Stage (New project/proposal, approved BREATHE activity, passed to another HDR UK Alliance member or hub, Inappropriate/rejected:
.Papers/Outputs:
.Key comms contacts:
.Comments:

.Category: Project
.Hub:BREATHE
.Name of project/reference: EXCEED
.Key project contact:
.Key BREATHE contact:Martin, David
.Brief description: study development to respond to COVID-19 research needs
.Source of Funding:
.Likely resource implication:
.Notes / current state: [underway, national prioritisation application outcome awaited]
.Data depositing?:
.Data accessing?
.Analysis?:
.Core/enabled/affiliated/discussions ongoing:
.Stage (New project/proposal, approved BREATHE activity, passed to another HDR UK Alliance member or hub, Inappropriate/rejected:
.Papers/Outputs:
.Key comms contacts:
.Comments:

.Category: Project
.Hub:BREATHE
.Name of project/reference: Coronagenes
.Key project contact:Jim WIlson
.Key BREATHE contact:Aziz, Martin
.Brief description: Facilitation?
.Source of Funding:
.Likely resource implication: BREATHE Comms - to promote study recruitment
.Notes / current state:
.Data depositing?:
.Data accessing?
.Analysis?:
.Core/enabled/affiliated/discussions ongoing:
.Stage (New project/proposal, approved BREATHE activity, passed to another HDR UK Alliance member or hub, Inappropriate/rejected:
.Papers/Outputs:
.Key comms contacts:
.Comments:

.Category: Project
.Hub:BREATHE
.Name of project/reference: ISARIC-4C COVID-19 host genomics studies
.Key project contact:
.Key BREATHE contact:
.Brief description: Facilitation?
.Source of Funding:
.Likely resource implication:
.Notes / current state:
.Data depositing?:
.Data accessing?
.Analysis?:
.Core/enabled/affiliated/discussions ongoing:
.Stage (New project/proposal, approved BREATHE activity, passed to another HDR UK Alliance member or hub, Inappropriate/rejected:
.Papers/Outputs:
.Key comms contacts:
.Comments:

10.

.Category: Project
.Hub:BREATHE
.Name of project/reference: UK Biobank/LPS/International Common Disease Alliance
.Key project contact:
.Key BREATHE contact:Martin, Jenni
.Brief description: BREATHE is coordinating activities between UK Biobank, UK Longitudinal Population Studies, and the International Common Disease Alliance to enable rapid, large scale COVID-19 host genomics studies that will produce openly accessible, weekly updated genome-wide results
.Source of Funding:
.Likely resource implication: Likely UK Biobank Host Genomics working group (input from BREATHE, UK LPS & UoLeic Genetic Epidemiology group via Martin) together with Andrea Ganna, Mark Daly, Ben Neale, Manual Rivas, Peter Visscher
.Notes / current state: [suggest for discussion on next call – especially with Jenni - as more we could do beyond list of codes currently shared to improve the readiness to use UKB linked data quickly when it is available]
.Data depositing?:
.Data accessing?
.Analysis?:
.Core/enabled/affiliated/discussions ongoing:
.Stage (New project/proposal, approved BREATHE activity, passed to another HDR UK Alliance member or hub, Inappropriate/rejected:
.Papers/Outputs:
.Key comms contacts:
.Comments:

11.

.Category: Coordination
.Hub:BREATHE
.Name of project/reference: Regeneration & University of Michigan
.Key project contact:
.Key BREATHE contact:Martin
.Brief description: working with Regeneron & University of Michigan (Goncalo Abecasis) to deposit with UK Biobank a genomic dataset that will enhance COVID-19 research in minority ethnic groups – this the TOPMED imputed genome-wide dataset which has more accurate imputation and better rare variant coverage than current daatsets for non-European ancestry individuals.
.Source of Funding:
.Likely resource implication:
.Notes / current state:
.Data depositing?:
.Data accessing?
.Analysis?:
.Core/enabled/affiliated/discussions ongoing:
.Stage (New project/proposal, approved BREATHE activity, passed to another HDR UK Alliance member or hub, Inappropriate/rejected:
.Papers/Outputs:
.Key comms contacts:
.Comments:

12.

.Category: Coordination
.Hub:BREATHE
.Name of project/reference: Genome sequencing
.Key project contact:
.Key BREATHE contact:Martin
.Brief description: BREATHE (Martin) reaching out to industry members of the UK Biobank sequencing consortium (Regeneron, GSK) to explore whether they could make genome sequencing data available for the whole scientific community to use for COVID-19 research for public benefit during their exclusive period of access (also would require UK Biobank to have the capacity to make it available to researchers – also being discussed in parallel).
.Source of Funding:
.Likely resource implication:
.Notes / current state:
.Data depositing?:
.Data accessing?
.Analysis?:
.Core/enabled/affiliated/discussions ongoing:
.Stage (New project/proposal, approved BREATHE activity, passed to another HDR UK Alliance member or hub, Inappropriate/rejected:
.Papers/Outputs:
.Key comms contacts:
.Comments:

14.

.Category: Coordination
.Hub:BREATHE
.Name of project/reference: European Respiratory Society’s COVID-19 Clinical research Collaboration
.Key project contact:
.Key BREATHE contact: Chris Brightling
.Brief description: BREATHE is coordinating activity with the European Respiratory Society’s COVID-19 Clinical research Collaboration (Chris Brightling, BREATHE Investigator and ERS Science Council Chair) to facilitate Europe-wide COVID-19 studies. This will be particularly valuable in studying the medium-long term consequences of COVID-19
.Source of Funding:
.Likely resource implication:
.Notes / current state:
.Data depositing?:
.Data accessing?
.Analysis?:
.Core/enabled/affiliated/discussions ongoing:
.Stage (New project/proposal, approved BREATHE activity, passed to another HDR UK Alliance member or hub, Inappropriate/rejected:
.Papers/Outputs:
.Key comms contacts:
.Comments:

15.

.Category: Project
.Hub:BREATHE
.Name of project/reference: Air Pollution
.Key project contact:
.Key BREATHE contact: Anna Hansell
.Brief description: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air pollution, and the relationship of air pollution to COVID-19 susceptibility (Anna Hansell)
.Source of Funding:
.Likely resource implication:
.Notes / current state:
.Data depositing?:
.Data accessing?
.Analysis?:
.Core/enabled/affiliated/discussions ongoing:
.Stage (New project/proposal, approved BREATHE activity, passed to another HDR UK Alliance member or hub, Inappropriate/rejected:
.Papers/Outputs:
.Key comms contacts:
.Comments: