TY - JOUR T1 - Understanding and responding to COVID-19 in Wales: protocol for a privacy-protecting data platform for enhanced epidemiology and evaluation of interventions JF - BMJ Open JO - BMJ Open DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043010 VL - 10 IS - 10 SP - e043010 AU - Jane Lyons AU - Ashley Akbari AU - Fatemeh Torabi AU - Gareth I Davies AU - Laura North AU - Rowena Griffiths AU - Rowena Bailey AU - Joseph Hollinghurst AU - Richard Fry AU - Samantha L Turner AU - Daniel Thompson AU - James Rafferty AU - Amy Mizen AU - Chris Orton AU - Simon Thompson AU - Lee Au-Yeung AU - Lynsey Cross AU - Mike B Gravenor AU - Sinead Brophy AU - Biagio Lucini AU - Ann John AU - Tamas Szakmany AU - Jan Davies AU - Chris Davies AU - Daniel Rh Thomas AU - Christopher Williams AU - Chris Emmerson AU - Simon Cottrell AU - Thomas R Connor AU - Chris Taylor AU - Richard J Pugh AU - Peter Diggle AU - Gareth John AU - Simon Scourfield AU - Joe Hunt AU - Anne M Cunningham AU - Kathryn Helliwell AU - Ronan Lyons Y1 - 2020/10/01 UR - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/10/e043010.abstract N2 - Introduction The emergence of the novel respiratory SARS-CoV-2 and subsequent COVID-19 pandemic have required rapid assimilation of population-level data to understand and control the spread of infection in the general and vulnerable populations. Rapid analyses are needed to inform policy development and target interventions to at-risk groups to prevent serious health outcomes. We aim to provide an accessible research platform to determine demographic, socioeconomic and clinical risk factors for infection, morbidity and mortality of COVID-19, to measure the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare utilisation and long-term health, and to enable the evaluation of natural experiments of policy interventions.Methods and analysis Two privacy-protecting population-level cohorts have been created and derived from multisourced demographic and healthcare data. The C20 cohort consists of 3.2 million people in Wales on the 1 January 2020 with follow-up until 31 May 2020. The complete cohort dataset will be updated monthly with some individual datasets available daily. The C16 cohort consists of 3 million people in Wales on the 1 January 2016 with follow-up to 31 December 2019. C16 is designed as a counterfactual cohort to provide contextual comparative population data on disease, health service utilisation and mortality. Study outcomes will: (a) characterise the epidemiology of COVID-19, (b) assess socioeconomic and demographic influences on infection and outcomes, (c) measure the impact of COVID-19 on short -term and longer-term population outcomes and (d) undertake studies on the transmission and spatial spread of infection.Ethics and dissemination The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage-independent Information Governance Review Panel has approved this study. The study findings will be presented to policy groups, public meetings, national and international conferences, and published in peer-reviewed journals. ER -