Incident trending and how we use data

We use incident trending to identify and prevent recurring equipment issues. All incident reports sent to IRIC are added to our trending system.

What is incident trending?

Incident trending is our method of analysing our adverse incident database.

We use three key data fields:

• equipment category
• suspected problem
• health impact

We monitor data for a minimum of two years.

Why use incident trending?

Trending helps us identify safety issues with equipment or medical devices.

We look for clusters of reports and flag them for closer examination. If we find something that links the incidents, we will open an investigation.

How is data shared?

We collaborate and share data with key partners.

These include:

• National Procurement (a division of National Services Scotland)
• Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)
• Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG)
• Scottish Government

By sharing incident data, we help keep safety systems in place across Scotland and the United Kingdom.