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Using SAVSNET data for research

The Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network (SAVSNET) is a research resource, collecting large volumes of de-identified electronic health data from UK veterinary practices and diagnostic laboratories. Whether you're a researcher from practice, academia or industry, we welcome enquiries about using this veterinary big data in your work.

In it's raw format, the data is messy with many different words used to describe one aspect - as a simple example, some veterinary practices will use the word 'canine' and some will use "dog".  A key focus of the SAVSNET team's work is cleaning the data using sophisticated techniques, making it usable by researchers. This is what we call making the data "research ready".

The cleaned data is available for research and we welcome enquiries from researchers across all fields who want to use veterinary big data in their work.

How to apply

The process of applying to use SAVSNET data is handled by our online system, the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network Data Access and Publications Portal.

Please note, we are currently experiencing high demand and our small team is extremely busy. We are currently only accepting applications from applicants with funding, including those funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), PetSavers or Dogs Trust.

There are two stages to the application process.

  • Stage 1: Request to use SAVSNET data by submitting an enquiry through our online application portal, describing the topic and type of data you are interested in. We will then get in touch with you to discuss this in more detail
  • Stage 2: Submit a full application to use SAVSNET data which will be reviewed by our Data Access and Publications Panel (DAPP). This is a committee who assess the intended work, including scientific merit, and how the work could benefit veterinary practitioners and their patients. Typically, a decision is made in two weeks.

If your project application is approved, you'll be allocated a Data Chaperone. This is a member of the SAVSNET team who's familiar with the data and will be able to advise on handling and statistical analyses. Their advice is very often invaluable, especially when approved researchers could be working with a dataset of tens of thousands of records.

There's a fee for using SAVSNET data for research, which helps cover the cost of cleaning the data, preparing the data for the project and the infrastructure in place for SAVSNET to exist. The amount is confirmed through the application process once we have the full data requirements. This money is used to help sustain the longevity of the project.

Sample data

To help researchers understand SAVSNET data before applying, the team prepared 4,415 random consults from veterinary practices to display online. This sample were screened to remove any potential identifiers or financial information that was entered into the electronic health record.

In order to preserve anonymity, certain fields such as breed, age and treatments have also been removed. These, alongside patient sex, neuter status, geographical location and other fields can be requested as part of a full application for data.

View sample veterinary practice data (XLSX, 843KB).

While the sample will have minimal research utility, it can be used to explore some of the data SAVSNET holds and help with developing applications for data access. We hope you find this dataset useful.