National Obesity Database

Novo Nordisk 

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals 

The overarching aim of this project is to develop a National Obesity Database that will collect data from Tier 3 services.

The database will be built in two phases. Phase 1 will make the online platform for hospital  healthcare workers to enter data and also allow pulling of data from other sources. Phase 2 will allow linkage of data from the National Bariatric Surgery database and also enable patients to see their own data and complete questionnaires sent to them.

The database will be built by Hicom, a specialist healthcare software development company with over 30 years’ experience in the design and deployment of patient care and electronic medical record solutions. The database will be online, with secure log in, on a secure server owned by Hicom. Hicom own and manage their own data centre in the UK with 24-hour security and off-site disaster recovery provision. They are also a Microsoft Certified (Silver) Partner, have Investors in People accreditation and are certified under the ISO-9001 quality assurance and ISO-27001 information security standards. The online database will have national coverage with the ability to be accessed on a European and/or global level, if necessary.

There are 8 steps to completion of the database, and these are as follows:

Step 1 – Development of the specifics of the Database - This has been completed.

Step 2 – Phase 1 building of the database

Step 3 – Piloting phase 1 of the database

Step 4 – Roll out of the phase 1 database to Tier 3 services

Step 5 – Phase 2 build of the database

Step 6 – Piloting phase 2 of the database

Step 7 – Roll out of phase 2 of the database to Tier 3 services

Step 8 – Working with commissionaires and the Department of Health (DOH)

Step 9 – Working to link research projects into the database.

This project will be overseen by the Society of Endocrinology and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust collectively, led by Rob Andrews, Associate Professor at the University of Exeter and an Honorary Consultant Physician at Musgrove Park Hospital Taunton.

Study Management Group
Professor Rob Andrews
Dr Ahmed Ahmed
Dr Jennifer Logue
Professor Barbara McGowan
Dr Alexander Miras
Dr Helen Parretti
Dr Emma Stapley
Professor John Wilding
Dr Alex Miras
Louise McCombie

National Obesity Steering Group 
Professor John Wass (Chair)
Professor Rob Andrews
Dr Adrian Park
Dr Karen Coulman
Sarah LeBroq – patient liaison
Danielle Wigg
Dr Ian McKenna
Dr Amanda Peacock
Dr Sadaf Ali
Dr Grigorios Panayiotou
Dr Petra Hanson
Irena Cruickshank
Dr Ahmed Al-Marbeh
Dr Imad Mekhail

The collection of national data will ultimately help us to improve services. We expect to be able to determine:

1. Which areas are not offering a Tier 3 service and help to ensure that these are set up.
2. Who works in Tier 3 services and what services they offer to overweight and obese patients. Those not currently conforming to specification will be offered support.
3. Whether there is equal access to treatment based on sex, age, social class and ethnicity. If not, this will be addressed.
4. The characteristics of the people attending the 3 services. This data will give an insight as to how unwell this population is and how many people are being referred into these services. This will in turn inform service planning.
5. How effective these services are and whether this varies from area to area. Centres with proven effective services can offer guidance and support to those not as effective.
6. Some insight into the “real world” effectiveness of different types of interventions.
   The local data that each centre receives will also be helpful in planning their services and enable them to look at how adaptions to their service affect their outcomes. This will enable them to improve the effectiveness of their service.

Finally, we expect that by building this database we will stimulate research in this population. The data from the database will be available on request for research. Researchers will be able to apply to use the database to identify patients for research, which should help to increase the number of people with obesity involved in studies. Results from these studies in the longer term will improve our understanding and treatment of obesity.

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