Keele University

Developing and testing the feasibility of a National Musculoskeletal (MSK) Audit and Research Database for Community and Primary Care MSK Services

Musculoskeletal conditions, including back, neck, joint, and muscle pain, are a leading cause of disability in the UK and globally. Over 20 million people in the UK live with these conditions, causing over 23 million lost working days annually. Despite most patients being managed in community and primary care (e.g., Physiotherapy and GP clinics), there is no publicly available information on care quality, consistency, or equity across these services. A data collection platform is needed to gather musculoskeletal health intelligence for multiple services in the West Midlands, improving care quality and highlighting best practices.

The project aims to evaluate the feasibility of using the West Midlands Secure Data Environment (West Midlands SDE) as a platform to house enhanced health intelligence data for musculoskeletal services, improving care in community and primary settings. The study will recruit at least four large community services in the West Midlands. Standardised data collection will include patient-reported outcomes and experiences, service-level data (e.g., waiting times, staffing), and electronic health records (e.g., diagnoses, treatments). Adults aged 18+ consulting for musculoskeletal conditions will be included. Data will be shared with West Midlands SDE under appropriate permissions.

Realisable benefits to patients and the NHS include:

Routine, large-scale surveillance in Community/Primary care MSK services for the first time.

Local interactive dashboards for quality improvement, contextualised for commissioners, service providers, clinicians, and patients, with infographics and bite-sized reports.

GIRFT-style benchmarked reporting, enabling like-for-like provider-level comparisons.

Sharing best practices and identifying local challenges to support regional quality improvement.

Identifying inequalities’ extent and drivers to enable targeted improvement initiatives.

Determining best-value, most effective care models, with data supporting research and informing national policy.

Infrastructure for real-world evaluation of initiatives to improve MSK care quality.

Collaborative health intelligence addressing key questions for stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, commissioners, and researchers.

06/01/2025

MSK dataset SDE008

West Midlands SDE trusted research environment

Keele University