Conducting Studies Using GPRD
The GPRD (General Practice Research Database), now managed by the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority), contains the longitudinal medical records for approximately 3.4 million active patients in the primary care setting in the UK. Monitoring the safety of medicines poses many challenges in the field of pharmacoepidemiology and occasionally, at the DSRU, it may be necessary to use databases other than the PEM database to answer specific drug safety questions or even to strengthen a signal detected using PEM.
In the past, the DSRU has used the GPRD to carry out both cohort and case control studies.