Brian is Director of NHS Service Analytics at the Bennett Institute. He also works for NHS England as a pharmacist adviser and primary care medicines data clinical lead. Brian was previously Clinical Fellow to the English Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, Dr. Keith Ridge, and Deputy Head of Medicines Optimisation at Islington Clinical Commissioning Group. Brian previously worked in a variety of hospitals, in London and Australia. He has also completed his Masters in Public Health at King’s College and has a specialist interest in pharmacomedy.
Papers by Brian MacKenna

(PRE-PRINT) Group A streptococcal cases and treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic and 2022 outbreak: a retrospective cohort study in England using OpenSAFELY-TPP

(PRE-PRINT) Fit notes associated with COVID-19 in 24 million patients’ primary care records: A cohort study in OpenSAFELY-TPP.

(PRE-PRINT) The impact of COVID-19 on medication reviews in English primary care. An OpenSAFELY-TPP analysis of 20 million adult electronic health records.

Eleven key measures for monitoring general practice clinical activity during COVID-19: A retrospective cohort study using 48 million adults’ primary care records in England through OpenSAFELY

[PRE-PRINT] Data-driven identification of potentially successful intervention implementations: a proof of concept using five years of opioid prescribing data from over 7000 practices in England

Changes in medication safety indicators in England throughout the covid-19 pandemic using OpenSAFELY: population based, retrospective cohort study of 57 million patients using federated analytics

Challenges in Estimating the Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination Using Observational Data

Changes in COVID-19-related mortality across key demographic and clinical subgroups in England from 2020 to 2022: a retrospective cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform

Data-Driven Identification of Unusual Prescribing Behavior: Analysis and Use of an Interactive Data Tool Using 6 Months of Primary Care Data From 6500 Practices in England

Comparative effectiveness of BNT162b2 versus mRNA-1273 covid-19 vaccine boosting in England: matched cohort study in OpenSAFELY-TPP

First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage amongst adolescents and children in England: an analysis of 3.21 million patients' primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY

Identifying Patterns of Clinical Interest in Clinicians' Treatment Preferences: Hypothesis-free Data Science Approach to Prioritizing Prescribing Outliers for Clinical Review

Impact of Electronic Health Record Interface Design on Unsafe Prescribing of Ciclosporin, Tacrolimus, and Diltiazem: Cohort Study in English National Health Service Primary Care

Suboptimal prescribing behaviour associated with clinical software design features: a retrospective cohort study in English NHS primary care

(PRE-PRINT) OpenSAFELY: Do adults prescribed Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have an increased risk of death from COVID-19?

Prescription of suboptimal statin treatment regimens: a retrospective cohort study of trends and variation in English primary care

The NHS deserves better use of hospital medicines data

Trends and variation in unsafe prescribing of methotrexate: a cohort study in English NHS primary care.

Six months on – NHS England needs to focus on dissemination, implementation and audit of its Low-Priority Initiative
Blogs by Brian MacKenna

Difference between BNF, dm+d and SNOMED CT codes

NHS Dictionary of medicines and devices (dm+d): primary care prescribing of "hospital only" medicines

How I use OpenPrescribing in my practice as a GP

Your Organisation's OpenPrescribing Custom Email Alerts

Impact of COVID-19 on prescribing in English general practice: March 2020

What are the most commonly prescribed medicines? Top 10 prescribed medicines in NHS England primary care for 2019

Changes to NHS medicines data: a rapid analysis from the Bennett Institute

NHS England Investment and Impact Fund — A new dashboard on OpenPrescribing

Primary Care Networks (PCN) Dashboards — A new prescribing dashboard on OpenPrescribing

New Measure: Seven Day Prescribing for Long-term Conditions

Zuclopenthixol Acetate: a new kind of measure on OpenPrescribing

NHS dm+d browser — A New Feature on OpenPrescribing

What is the dm+d? The NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices

Custom Organisation Groupings: OpenPrescribing Plan for Organisations like Primary Care Networks

All England Alerts : A New Feature on OpenPrescribing

Openness and Transparency: why is openness and transparency important for good data analysis and how does OpenPrescribing embody it?

NHS price concessions cost charities and local authorities an additional £5.6 million last year

NHS Regional and STP Dashboards — A new Feature on OpenPrescribing

Building new prescribing measures - we need your help

NHS Price Concession Alerts — A new feature on OpenPrescribing

Ghost Branded Generics: A new dashboard on OpenPrescribing

Price Concessions Calculator — A New Feature on OpenPrescribing
