This repository contains the code and data for running the Preventable Deaths Tracker
The data is taken from the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website
To capture the data, we run a web scraper which is available in the data folder.
We have processed the names of the deceased due to the sensitive nature of the data.
We wrote about the data collection method, web scraping, in Nature available here: "How we learnt to stop worrying and love web scraping" and are working on a number of research projects with this data, including:
- deaths involving anticoagulants and cardiovascular disease
- preventable deaths during the covid-19 pandemic
- preventable deaths involving cyclists
- an assessment of preventable suicides
- preventable deaths involving medicines and misused drugs, including a study on opioid-related deaths
We wrote an editorial in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine to launch the series, Coroners' Concerns to Prevent Harms, which will share case reports from the database to highlight key lessons to prevent serious non-fatal and fatal harms. The published articles in the series, include:
- harms from ingesting alcohol-based hand sanisiter
- harms from undiagnosed and untreated adverse drug reactions from diclofenac in adolescents
- harms from repeated prescriptions of tramadol
- hazards of emollient products in the presence of naked flames
- Georgia Richards
- Nick DeVito
- Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine: Carl Heneghan & Jeffrey Aronson
- EBM DataLab: Ben Goldacre
- Robin Ferner
- Anthony Cox
- NIHR SPCR Engagement & Dissemination Grant to develop the website