The Challenges and Lessons Learned Building a New UK Infrastructure for Finding and Accessing Population-Wide COVID-19 Data for Research and Public Health Analysis: The CO-CONNECT Project

Emily Jefferson   ^{1, 2} , BSc, PhD ;   Gordon Milligan   ³ , BSc, MSc ;   Jenny Johnston   ³ ;   Shahzad Mumtaz   ³ , BSc, MCS, PhD ;   Christian Cole   ^{1, 3} , BSc, PhD ;   Joseph Best   ⁴ ;   Thomas Charles Giles   ⁴ , BSc, PhD ;   Samuel Cox   ⁴ , MMath, PhD ;   Erum Masood   ³ , BE, MSc ;   Scott Horban   ³ , BSc ;   Esmond Urwin   ⁴ , BEng, MSc, PhD ;   Jillian Beggs   ⁵ , BSc ;   Antony Chuter   ⁵ ;   Gerry Reilly   ² , BSc, MSc ;   Andrew Morris   ² , MD, PhD ;   David Seymour   ² , BSc ;   Susan Hopkins   ⁶ , BA, MA, MSc, MD ;   Aziz Sheikh   ⁷ , BSc, MBBS, MSc, MD ;   Philip Quinlan   ⁴ , BSc, PhD

¹ Population Health and Genomics, School of Medicine, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom

² Health Data Research UK, London, United Kingdom

³ Health Informatics Centre, School of Medicine, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom

⁴ School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

⁵ Patient and Public Representatives, N/A, United Kingdom

⁶ Public Health England, London, United Kingdom

⁷ Centre for Population Health Sciences, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom