We are pleased to announce that the Renal Team at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in collaboration with Clinical Computing Limited (CCL) and the UK Renal Registry (UKRR), has become the first centre to submit a daily data feed to the UK Renal Data Collaboration (UKRDC) that meets the UKRR’s new v5 dataset requirements. Notably, CCL is the first new company in five years to achieve this milestone and the first to include the complete v5 dataset.

The UKRDC, managed by the UKRR, is a data warehouse designed to facilitate near real-time data submissions, offering significant benefits in monitoring and enhancing kidney care. The system provides a single feed of data that serves multiple purposes, including audit, research, quality improvement, and contributing to Personal Health Records (PHRs) for patients. This feed also contains the necessary information for meeting various regulatory requirements, such as NHS England’s specialised services quality dashboard (SSQD), the data quality measure CQUIN, the RSTP NCDR data portal, and the UKKA’s data completeness comparison.

Submission of data to the UKRR through the UKRDC is mandated by NHS England, and kidney centres, along with system suppliers, are actively working to meet this requirement.

Mark Hill, Renal Information Systems Manager at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, praised the seamless transition: “Moving to live reporting and complying with the v5 dataset has been incredibly smooth, thanks to our supplier, CCL, and the UKRR team. My colleagues and I are impressed by how quick and trouble-free the process has been!”

Tim Brennan, Managing Director of Clinical Computing UK Limited and Mediqal Health Informatics Limited, also expressed his satisfaction: “Supporting our customers in meeting their regulatory reporting obligations is a top priority. We are thrilled to now offer a near real-time feed of the UKRR’s v5 dataset for all our eMED Renal and clinicalvision users. We appreciate the collaboration with the UKRR in achieving this milestone and supporting the NHS’s ‘Get it Right the First Time’ initiative.”

Fran Benoy-Deeney, Data Team Manager at the UKRR, commented, “It’s exciting to have the first kidney centre submitting data via the UKRDC using the latest dataset. Many other centres are close to following suit, and we expect more to begin submitting in the coming weeks and months. We are now well on the path to being able to provide real-time data and all the benefits that brings.”

The UKRDC is poised to transform kidney care across the UK by providing real-time data access, standardising processes and nomenclature, and linking efficiently with other databases. It improves the quality and consistency of kidney centre data and enhances communication between member organisations. Kidney centres and staff will benefit from a more streamlined system, timely access to audit data, and real-time data visualisations.