The importance of databases to record clinical activity in the Health Service has never been more important, but this activity is usually primarily management-driven to assist the contracting process. However, to be useful, the information must be reliably collected. To be accurate and meaningful, it may need to be complex in structure and to involve clinical knowledge, this will often mean that medical staff must enter it.

All NHS Trusts are now required to submit detailed proposals about their research activity to obtain Culyer funding. Well-planned but simple and systematic collection of such data can sometimes provide important research data quickly and easily. A good example of this can be seen in the work being undertaken by Adam Finn and his team at Sheffield Children's Hospital, where cases of suspected and confirmed pneumococcal infection are being recorded as part of a project entitled IDREG.

The database supporting this project has been developed jointly by Illuminaries, a Sheffield based Microsoft Certified Solution Provider and Dr Finn, who explains, "After appropriate consent has been obtained, nurses or doctors working in the clinical team can enter clinical and microbiological data about each case prospectively. If this is done comprehensively over a fixed period, it will provide data on the incidence of cases of the commonest form of this infection, pneumonia, which are severe enough to reach hospital in the Sheffield community."

"As there will soon be a new vaccine available which can prevent this infection in children, such data will be of great importance in assessing the potential cost-benefit ratio of introducing the vaccine into general use." Added Dr Finn.

Speaking about the possibilities of such a tool, Dr Finn pointed out that the database provides an easily searchable source of information for day-to-day clinical use and, subject to appropriate consent, can also be used in other research projects addressing more specific issues in different groups of patients.

The IDREG database is to be made available to a number of other paediatricians around the UK in the autumn.