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James Farrell: The Power of Linked Electronic Health Records for Understanding Real Patient Journeys
James Farrell/LinkedIn
May 28, 2026, 16:19

James Farrell: The Power of Linked Electronic Health Records for Understanding Real Patient Journeys

James Farrell, Data Engineer at Our Future Health UK, shared on LinkedIn about a recent article he and his colleagues co-authored, published in BMJ Open, adding:

”Excited to share our new paper in BMJ Open, where we linked hospital admissions, SSNAP stroke audit data, death records, and GP records to get a much fuller picture of stroke events and outcomes across the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the biggest challenges in stroke research is that no single dataset tells the complete story.

By linking multiple sources, we can see exactly how much is missed when we rely on them in isolation.

Key findings that stood out:

  • Linked data dramatically improved stroke case ascertainment and gave us more accurate incidence estimates.
  • SSNAP provided rich clinical detail (stroke type and severity) that routine hospital data lacks.
  • GP records identified a substantial number of strokes not captured in hospitals, highlighting that stroke is not always an inpatient event.
  • We could measure important outcomes rarely seen in routine data, like medication use after stroke and “home-time” (days alive and out of hospital).

This work demonstrates the power of linked electronic health records for understanding real patient journeys.

This was an enjoyable and rewarding project to work on.

Huge thanks to the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre, Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), Stroke Association and all co-authors for their collaboration and expertise.”

Title: Measurement of quality of stroke care with national electronic health records: a prospective cohort study during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Authors: James Farrell, John Nolan, Roger Lambert, Ana Torralbo, Steffen E Petersen, Mevhibe Hocaoglu, Chris Tomlinson, Reecha Sofat, Qi Huang, Evan Kontopantelis, Martin James, Sarah Lessels, Jacqueline A L MacArthur, Angela M Wood, William N Whiteley, Spiros Denaxas

James Farrell: The Power of Linked Electronic Health Records for Understanding Real Patient Journeys

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Ana Torralbo Angela M Wood Chris Tomlinson Covid-19 Evan Kontopantelis Health Hematology Hemostasis Hemostasis News Hemostasis Today Jacqueline A L MacArthur James Farrell John Nolan Martin James Medicine Mevhibe Hocaoglu Qi Huang Reecha Sofat Roger Lambert Sarah Lessels Spiros Denaxas Steffen E. Petersen stroke thrombosis UK William N Whiteley
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