Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38783412›Full record

ArticlePharmacoepidemiology and drug safety2024

OpenSAFELY: A platform for analysing electronic health records designed for reproducible research.

Linda Nab, Andrea L Schaffer, William Hulme, Nicholas J DeVito, Iain Dillingham, Milan Wiedemann, Colm D Andrews, Helen Curtis, Louis Fisher, Amelia Green and 35 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
13citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Big data: from signal to action.Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

45 authors.

Linda NabBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-1821-7246
Andrea L SchafferBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-3701-4997
William HulmeBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Nicholas J DeVitoBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Iain DillinghamBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Milan WiedemannBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Colm D AndrewsBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Helen CurtisBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Louis FisherBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Amelia GreenBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Jon MasseyBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Caroline E WaltersBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Rose HigginsBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Christine CunninghamBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Jessica MorleyBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Amir MehrkarBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Liam HartBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Simon DavyBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
David EvansBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
George HickmanBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Peter InglesbyBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Caroline E MortonBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Rebecca M SmithBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Tom WardBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Thomas O'DwyerBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Steven MaudeBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Lucy BridgesBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Ben F C Butler-ColeBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Catherine L StablesBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Pete StokesBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Chris BatesTPP, TPP House, Leeds, UK.
Jonny CockburnTPP, TPP House, Leeds, UK.
Frank HesterTPP, TPP House, Leeds, UK.
John ParryTPP, TPP House, Leeds, UK.
Krishnan BhaskaranLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Anna SchultzeLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Christopher T RentschLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-1408-7907
Rohini MathurLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Laurie A TomlinsonLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Elizabeth J WilliamsonLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Liam SmeethLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Alex WalkerBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Sebastian BaconBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Brian MacKennaBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Ben GoldacreBennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

Funding

Department of Health COV-LT-0009Department of Health COV-LT2-0073Health Data Research UK HDRUK2021.000Medical Research Council MC_PC_20030Medical Research Council MC_PC_20058Medical Research Council MC_PC_20059Medical Research Council MR/V015737/1Medical Research Council MR/W016729/1National Institute for Health and Care Research COV-LT-0009National Institute for Health and Care Research COV-LT2-0073National Institute for Health and Care Research NIHR135559UK Research and Innovation MC_PC_20058Wellcome Trust 220283Wellcome Trust 220283/Z/20/ZWellcome Trust 222097Wellcome Trust 222097/Z/20/ZWellcome Trust 224485Wellcome Trust 224485/Z/21/Z
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Electronic health records (EHRs) and other administrative health data are increasingly used in research to generate evidence on the effectiveness, safety, and utilisation of medical products and services, and to inform public health guidance and policy. Reproducibility is a fundamental step for research credibility and promotes trust in evidence generated from EHRs. At present, ensuring research using EHRs is reproducible can be challenging for researchers. Research software platforms can provide technical solutions to enhance the reproducibility of research conducted using EHRs. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed the secure, transparent, analytic open-source software platform OpenSAFELY designed with reproducible research in mind. OpenSAFELY mitigates common barriers to reproducible research by: standardising key workflows around data preparation; removing barriers to code-sharing in secure analysis environments; enforcing public sharing of programming code and codelists; ensuring the same computational environment is used everywhere; integrating new and existing tools that encourage and enable the use of reproducible working practices; and providing an audit trail for all code that is run against the real data to increase transparency. This paper describes OpenSAFELY's reproducibility-by-design approach in detail.

Indexed as

COVID-19Electronic Health RecordsSoftwareHumansReproducibility of ResultsResearch Designelectronic health recordsOpenSAFELYopen sciencereproducibilityresearch platform

Identifiers

PMID38783412
PMCPMC7616137

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.