Feasibility Studies

Connected West Yorkshire has successfully obtained approvals from the NHS Research Ethics Committees and Confidential Advisory Group (under section 251) along with establishing data sharing agreements and secure data environments.

We can conduct a feasibility study to provide summary information and estimate the number of eligible participants available to support power calculations or assess data availability. We have created a quick feasibility summary report—an example can be found here.

To complete a feasibility assessment, we require some information about your cohort definition, together with an ideally comprehensive list of the clinical codes (e.g. Read codes, SNOMED CT, ICD-10, ctv3) required for your study. A template request form can be found here. Please complete all sections and return it to cWestYorkshire@bthft.nhs.uk. If a study protocol is available, please include it with your request, particularly where inclusion and exclusion criteria, phenotype definitions, or detailed study specifications have already been defined.

We are able to use primary care, secondary care, and education records to estimate sample sizes. We can also support cohort identification using many of the other datasets described in our data dictionary. More complex requests involving multiple linked datasets, uncommon variables, or bespoke coding reviews may require additional time, depending on data availability and resource requirements.

If you would like to discuss your requirements before submitting a request, please contact us cWestYorkshire@bthft.nhs.uk —we will be happy to advise on how we can support your research.