eLIXIR Born in South London- Early Life Data Cross-Linkage in Research- Data

Investment in the earliest stages of life is increasingly recognised to improve health across the life-course, beginning with the health of parents before pregnancy, in embryonic life, through to infancy, childhood, and into adulthood. eLIXIR BiSL combines information from routine maternity and neonatal health records and blood samples at two acute NHS Trust hospitals, along with mental health and primary care data. The study is able to address relationships between maternal and child physical health, and to investigate interactions with mental health. Participants are predominantly residents of South London, in areas with high levels of deprivation and ethnic diversity. The BiSL data-linkage project uses opt-out consent to collect routine maternity and neonatal clinical patient data (GSTT and KCH NHS Trusts), mental health data from the SLaM CRIS platform, and primary care data from the LDN platform, for those registered with a GP in Lambeth. We hold the approval to also link with emergency and admissions data (HES), national fertility data (HFEA), and immunisation records (NIMS), as well as expanding primary care data to other boroughs in South London, namely: Southwark, Lewisham, and Bromley; the process to link these new data sources is currently ongoing. At present, eLIXIR holds over 50,000 records. All records are deidentified, including masking of identifying information in open-text fields and use of pseudonymised identifiers. The data refresh process occurs every 6 months, and each update includes all retrospective data since conception of the cohort (October 2018), thus building a dynamic cohort. The BiSL team includes members King’s College London Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences (IoPPN), along with services users and patient representatives. The eLIXIR Born in South London project has now been successfully awarded a MRC Longitudinal Population Study Grant which will enable us to operate for the next 5 years and continue building this dynamic mother-child database. BiSL is part of the MIREDA Study Partnership bringing together birth cohort data across the UK.