USE OF READ CODES IN DEVELOPMENT OF A STANDARD DATA SET

General practice has a wealth of data that could be used for purposes such as assessing health needs, planning, and audit. If this potential is to be realised appropriate data must be easily accessible and of h igh quality. This article describes the experience of an information p roject team in developing and coding a standard data set, with the aim of meeting the needs of commissioners, public health, and general pra ctitioners. The Read coding classification seemed the logical choice f or the standard data set because Read codes are the basis of a standar d classification of general practice data. However, the coding structu re has several weaknesses that were difficult to resolve, and the stan dard data set had to be changed to match available codes. This paper m ay prove helpful to similar project teams attempting to develop and us e a standard data set.