We have demonstrated that general practice data is a valuable resource for leukaemia research.
One explanation given is that data sharing practices sit uncomfortably with research cultures that continue to reward publication of journal articles over the public release of data [ 8].
The proportion of patients aged 65 years and over in the population of practices uploading GRASP-AF data, is higher than that reported by the ONS 2010 estimate for England (17.3% vs 16.5%).
"The more people understand the practices and how the data is actually being used, that's when the concerns disappear," he said.
The stratified method is to be preferred as this generates data which is more likely to have occurred for the practice that the missing data is being imputed for.
The main strength of this study is that it uses a large, longitudinal, high-quality, and validated UK general practice data set, that has previously been used for cancer diagnostic studies (Jones et al, 2007; Dommett et al, 2012); and recent systematic reviews have confirmed the validity of diagnostic coding within GPRD (Herrett et al, 2010; Khan et al, 2010).
"Adjusting for these biases, a process known as homogenisation, is carried out by meteorological authorities around the world as best practice, to ensure that climate data is consistent through time".
However, a limitation of using data from daily practice is that medication use differs for each patient and changes over time.
That is a controversial practice, because it means that consumer data is gathered and used by third parties, often without the Web visitors' knowledge or consent.
The practice is that for all these data, open data, big data, to work, it requires a lot of analytics.
