Health UK (Commonwealth Union) – The VIVALDI Social Care initiative, initiated by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in partnership with The Outstanding Society, Care England, and NHS England, is set to collaborate with over 500 care homes in England. The project’s objective is to monitor various infections, including Covid-19, flu, norovirus, and urinary tract infections, and then analyze the resulting anonymized data. The aim is to mitigate the impact of infections and outbreaks among older adults in care homes.
This pilot program follows the VIVALDI study on Covid-19 in care homes, which played a pivotal role during the pandemic. It provided valuable insights that influenced decisions to restrict staff movement between care homes in order to minimize infection risks and emphasized the necessity of sick pay for care home workers.
Principal investigator Professor Laura Shallcross, from the UCL Institute of Health Informatics, who also led the earlier VIVALDI study, expressed her enthusiasm for The VIVALDI Social Care project, highlighting it as an excellent opportunity for researchers, residents, relatives, staff, and care providers to collaborate in addressing the challenges of infections and outbreaks in care homes.
“By learning lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, we aim to find new, better ways to protect residents that do not impact negatively on their quality of life.”
The pilot study will be supported by a data platform collaboratively developed with individuals residing in and working at care homes. This platform will facilitate the linkage of care home resident lists with existing NHS routine datasets, encompassing data on hospital admissions, mortality rates, immunizations, laboratory test results, and prescriptions. All of this will be managed using a shared pseudo-identifier system based on NHS numbers.
This comprehensive approach will yield an extensive overview of the health and healthcare interactions of care home residents.
In the prior VIVALDI study, which was also commissioned by UKHSA, researchers investigated the impact of Covid-19 in care homes. They sought to identify preventive measures against infection transmission and assess the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccinations.
Researchers of the study pointed out that this study, along with regular asymptomatic testing for Covid-19, filled a critical gap in the data infrastructure of care homes for older adults. This gap had left such facilities vulnerable to infections and outbreaks at the outset of the pandemic.
The VIVALDI survey was initiated in May 2020 with the aim of gauging the prevalence of Covid-19 infections among care home staff and residents and gaining insight into the reasons behind outbreaks in some homes. This entailed swab testing through the national care home testing program and the completion of surveys by care home managers.
The primary VIVALDI study was launched in June 2020, expanding on the findings of the VIVALDI survey by connecting routinely collected data from staff and residents in over 300 care homes across England. This dataset included records of vaccinations, hospital visits, and deaths. Blood samples were also collected to investigate infection rates, immunity, and other factors within long-term care facilities.
Professor Steven Riley, who serves as the Director General of Data, Analytics, and Surveillance at the UK Health Security Agency, indicated that the significant contributions of the UKHSA’s collaboration with UCL on the VIVALDI study. This collaboration facilitated a deeper understanding of Covid-19’s impact on care homes and directly informed crucial policy decisions, thereby safeguarding the well-being of individuals in adult social care settings during the pandemic.
“We are delighted to be able to continue this work by funding the VIVALDI Social Care pilot which will improve our understanding of infections in care homes and similar environments beyond Covid-19 and will provide valuable data that will contribute to our mission to prepare for, prevent and respond to health threats, protect livelihoods and, most importantly, save lives.”
