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Management Board

The management board is established by Oxford and EMIS to govern the QResearch project and the use of the QResearch database for the purpose of the QResearch Collaboration agreement in accordance with the Protocol, Ethics Approval and Data Sharing Agreements with contributing practices.

The board is responsible for:

  1. Strategy and mission: sets the strategy and mission to maximise research and the public benefit arising from that research; ensures that activity is consistent with and supports the aims of both EMIS and Oxford to generate new knowledge to drive improvements in patient care.
  2. Security, governance and transparency: ensuring that security, ethical and governance requirements are met; that all decisions are open, accountable, honest, transparent and objective and consistent with the Protocol, ethics approval and data sharing agreements with contributing practices.
  3. Resources and financial management: ensuring the necessary finance and technical resources are available to ensure the long-term success of QResearch as a not-for-profit research infrastructure for the academic community (within and external to Oxford); approves the cost model and underpinning financial principles to ensure scalability and sustainability of QResearch; sound financial management with clear allocation of resources to achieve the objectives.
  4. Translation of research into benefits for patients: (where appropriate) identifying and supporting the implementation of reliable, transparent and robust mechanisms by which results of research projects using QResearch can be disseminated and translated back into benefits for contributing practices, and patients.
  5. Risk management: oversight of QResearch risk register and ensuring / validating adequate controls are in place for all risks on the register. Risk horizon scanning.

 

Membership: The membership of the management board will comprise of 4 ‘executive’ members to represent various interests

  • Chief Investigator, academic lead and founder of QResearch (Julia Hippisley-Cox)
  • Head of Nuffield Department of Primary Care, University of Oxford (Richard Hobbs)
  • Chief Medical Officer, EMIS Group Plc (Shaun O’Hanlon)
  • Director, EMIS Group Plc (under appointment)

Any of the executive members may nominate a deputy from their respective organisations in the event they are unable to attend a management board meeting.

Decision making and process: Decision making will be made by consensus. In the extraordinary instance where no consensus opinion can be reached, decision making will be made by majority decision. If no majority decision can be reached, an independent third party will be called upon to arbitrate a decision.

Meetings will occur at least 4 times per year with dates agreed at least 2 weeks in advance (urgent meetings can be called within 5 days). Papers will be circulated at least 1 week before the meetings. Meetings will be quorate when there are 4 people present with two from EMIS and two from Oxford.

The Chief Investigator will be responsible for preparing a quarterly key performance indicator (KPI) report which will include (but not limited to)

  • Financial statement
  • Risk Register & Significant events (including information governance issues)
  • KPI for metrics to cover each of the 5 areas of board responsibility

Draft minutes will be circulated within a week of the Board meeting and ratified at the next Board meeting.

QResearch Management Board Declaration of Interests Policy Statement

The QResearch management board requires that members submit a declaration of interests on an annual basis. Individuals are asked to provide information on any financial or other interest, benefit or relationship that might reasonably be thought to influence their actions or judgment in their role e.g. directorships (including non-executive directorships); consultancies; partnerships in a business or sole trader; membership of official committees, such as those of a government department, research council, professional institution or advisory body to an industrial company; trusteeships (charitable and other); public appointments (whether remunerated or not); organisations from which they receive financial support or which could benefit their position significantly or in which they have a financial interest, board responsibility or ongoing consulting involvement; shareholding in excess of 5% in any company trading in an area related to their University position; membership of the governing body / trustee of an Oxford college; and any other interests that do not fall into these categories but which are covered by the general purpose of the University’s Policy on Conflict of Interest. They are also asked to include any interests of these types that are held by a member of their immediate family or any person with whom they have a close personal relationship.

Julia Hippisley-Cox is the Chief Investigator for QResearch and Professor in Clinical Epidemiology and General Practice at the University of Oxford. She is a Professorial Fellow and a Trustee of St Anne's College Oxford and an NHS GP, an Honorary Consultant with NHS England and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. Until Aug 2023 JHC had a 50% shareholding in ClinRisk Ltd, co-owning it with her husband who is a director. The company licences software both to the private sector and to NHS bodies or bodies that provide services to the NHS (through GP electronic health record providers until Aug 2023, pharmacies, hospital providers and other NHS providers).  This software implements algorithms developed from access to the QResearch database during her time at the University of Nottingham. in August 2023, 100% of the shareholding for ClinRisk Ltd was donated to Endeavour Health Care Charitable Trust. JHC is a consultant for the company which has been renamed to Endeavour Predict Ltd.