Heart Failure in Primary Care: Lessons from Big Data

Dr Clare J Taylor, Academic GP, explores how we can use large, anonymised GP datasets to improve our understanding of heart failure management in primary care. Nearly all UK residents are registered with a general practice and data collected during routine consultations can be used by researchers to understand more about common diseases. Heart failure occurs when the heart has been damaged and is struggling to pump enough blood to meet the needs of the body. Patients can feel breathless, exhausted and have swollen legs but treatments to improve quality of life and outlook are available. In this lecture, Dr Taylor explores how we can use large, anonymised GP datasets to improve our understanding of heart failure management in primary care. With a focus on the patient throughout, she presents her recent work on heart failure diagnosis and survival to illustrate the power, and limitations, of using big GP data for research and to ultimately improve patient care. Part of the Evidence-Based Health Care programme. About the speaker: Dr Clare J Taylor is a Clinical Lecturer in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. Her research explores heart failure in primary care using big data epidemiology, prospective studies, and qualitative work. The findings have been published in high-impact journals and informed national and European heart failure policy. Clare is also experienced in postgraduate teaching and doctoral supervision and was a member of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Chronic Heart Failure guideline committee. She also works as an NHS general practitioner.