Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) is a real-world research service supporting retrospective and prospective public health and clinical studies. CPRD research data services are delivered by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency with support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), as part of the Department of Health and Social Care.

CPRD collects anonymised patient data from a network of GP practices across the UK. Primary care data are linked to a range of other health related data to provide a longitudinal, representative UK population health dataset. The data encompass 60 million patients, including 18 million currently registered patients.

For more than 35 years, research using CPRD data and services has informed clinical guidance and best practice, resulting in over 3,500 peer-reviewed publications investigating drug safety, use of medicines, effectiveness of health policy, health care delivery and disease risk factors.