HEalth Data Research OMOP Network (HERON-UK), a real-world evidence federated network of hospital and primary care electronic health records including 57 million individuals and 7 data partners in the United Kingdom.

As healthcare systems generate growing volumes of routinely collected clinical data, there is increasing demand for high-quality real-world evidence (RWE) to inform regulatory, clinical, and policy decisions. However, fragmentation of data sources, heterogeneous structures, and inconsistent coding systems present significant barriers to conducting reliable large-scale analyses. Federated data networks using a common data model—such as the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM)—address these challenges by enabling standardised, privacy-preserving analytics across diverse data sources. We have established a federated data network of seven UK-based partners, each maintaining routinely collected health care data mapped to the OMOP CDM. A central coordinating centre develops and distributes analytic code, which each partner runs locally on their secure OMOP instance. Only aggregated, non-identifiable results are shared back, preserving data privacy while enabling reproducible, scalable analyses. The onboarding process involved three steps: database description, benchmarking, and comprehensive data characterisation to support study feasibility and data understanding. The network includes five English NHS trusts, one primary care data provider, and one Scottish NHS trust, representing approximately 57.2 million individuals (without accounting for any overlap across sources), 1.73 billion drug exposures, and 854 million condition records.

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Publication Details

Published
2026-10-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.22541/authorea.15011082/v1
Primary Topic
Electronic Health Records Systems
Type
preprint
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preprint

HEalth Data Research OMOP Network (HERON-UK), a real-world evidence federated network of hospital and primary care electronic health records including 57 million individuals and 7 data partners in the United Kingdom.

Danielle Newby, Baptiste Briot Ribeyre, Timothy Howcroft, Mahéva Vallet et al.
Electronic Health Records Systems
preprint

HEalth Data Research OMOP Network (HERON-UK), a real-world evidence federated network of hospital and primary care electronic health records including 57 million individuals and 7 data partners in the United Kingdom.

Danielle Newby, Baptiste Briot Ribeyre, Timothy Howcroft, Mahéva Vallet, Zara Cuccu, Jennifer C. E. Lane, Daniel A. Key, Hiba Junaid, Usama Rahman, Martí Català, Daniel Prieto‐Alhambra, Marta Pasikowska, Stelios Theophanous, Daniel Dedman, Lydia Briggs, Xavier Luke Griffin, Vishnu Chandrabalan, David Seymour, C. Mclean, Edward Burn, Geoff Hall, Cecilia Campanile, Elin Rowlands, Ana Cavalcante, Edward Bolton, Nicola Symmers, Spyro Nita, Prasiddha Khadka, Shiren Patel, Peter S. Hall, Andy South, Steve Harris, Stefan Piatek, Alex E. Knight, Ben Eaton, Daniel Prieto Alhambra
preprint en

Abstract

As healthcare systems generate growing volumes of routinely collected clinical data, there is increasing demand for high-quality real-world evidence (RWE) to inform regulatory, clinical, and policy decisions. However, fragmentation of data sources, heterogeneous structures, and inconsistent coding systems present significant barriers to conducting reliable large-scale analyses. Federated data networks using a common data model—such as the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM)—address these challenges by enabling standardised, privacy-preserving analytics across diverse data sources. We have established a federated data network of seven UK-based partners, each maintaining routinely collected health care data mapped to the OMOP CDM. A central coordinating centre develops and distributes analytic code, which each partner runs locally on their secure OMOP instance. Only aggregated, non-identifiable results are shared back, preserving data privacy while enabling reproducible, scalable analyses. The onboarding process involved three steps: database description, benchmarking, and comprehensive data characterisation to support study feasibility and data understanding. The network includes five English NHS trusts, one primary care data provider, and one Scottish NHS trust, representing approximately 57.2 million individuals (without accounting for any overlap across sources), 1.73 billion drug exposures, and 854 million condition records.

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GB), Queen Mary University of London (GB), Barts Health NHS Trust (GB), Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (GB), Great Ormond Street Hospital (GB), Erasmus MC (NL), Edinburgh Cancer Research (GB), University of Oxford (GB), Clinical Practice Research Datalink (GB), UCL Biomedical Research Centre (GB), Health Data Research UK (GB), Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (GB), University College London (GB)
Electronic Health Records Systems
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