UK Renal Data Collaboration
The UKRDC brings together information from kidney centres’ electronic patient records to support registry reporting, research and patient access to their records.
Managed by the UK Renal Registry, it enables centres to send daily electronic data feeds using a common format. This supports the move towards more timely information about kidney care, reducing reliance on separate periodic submissions and making better use of information already recorded in clinical systems.
Bringing kidney data closer to real time
Daily electronic feeds help move kidney reporting beyond periodic data returns. The UKRDC enables information already recorded during care to support several purposes, reducing repeated submissions and providing a foundation for more timely reporting, research and quality improvement.
How the UKRDC works
- Information is recorded during care. Kidney centres maintain information about patients, their conditions and treatments in their electronic clinical systems.
- The centre sends an electronic feed. Clinical system suppliers work with kidney centres and the UK Renal Registry Systems Team to develop feeds using the UKRDC format.
- The UKRDC receives and checks the information. Submitted records undergo checks on their structure, coding and content. Feedback helps centres and suppliers identify problems and make corrections in the source system.
- The information supports reporting and other services. A feed can support UKRR reporting, RaDaR and Patients Know Best, depending on the information supplied and the relevant permissions.
Daily feeds make information available sooner. Further checking and preparation remain part of producing reliable analyses and national reports.
Data and participation
The UKRDC supports a broad range of information recorded in kidney centres’ clinical systems, including:
- Patient identifiers and demographic information
- Kidney diagnoses and other health conditions
- Laboratory results and clinical observations
- Medications
- Kidney treatments, dialysis prescriptions and dialysis sessions
- Transplantation
- Assessments and care planning
The information included in a feed depends on the patients covered and the requirements of the services it supports. Not every feed needs to populate every part of the UKRDC schema.
The UKRR dataset specification describes the information required for registry reporting, including the data items, definitions and codes used.
The UKRDC schema describes how information is structured for electronic transmission. It covers the wider needs of services using UKRDC, including registry reporting, RaDaR and patient records.
The UKRR specification includes mappings to the relevant UKRDC elements, helping clinical system suppliers translate the reporting requirements into an electronic feed. Dataset versions and UKRDC schema versions are separate.
Connecting involves collaboration between your kidney centre, its clinical system supplier and the UKRR systems team.
The team can advise on your existing arrangements, the information needed and the development and testing of a feed. Testing allows problems to be identified and addressed before the feed moves into live use.
Contact the UKRR systems team to discuss your centre’s requirements. Detailed implementation guidance is available through the feed-development documentation below.