opr: OpenPrescribing in R

The opr package helps researchers access and analyse the OpenPrescribing.net BigQuery database in R. Instead of writing SQL, you can use dplyr.

Installation

You can install the development version of opr from GitHub:

# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("bennettoxford/opr")

Usage

You’ll need BigQuery credentials, see Connect to BigQuery for setup instructions.

library(opr)
library(dplyr)

con <- connect_bq()

# Standard GP practices (setting code 4) with descriptive labels
get_practices(con, filter_setting = 4, add_setting_labels = TRUE) |>
  collect()

# Prescribing of metformin 500mg MR tablets in early 2023
get_normalised_prescribing(
  con,
  bnf_codes = "0601022B0AAASAS",
  start_date = "2023-01-01",
  end_date = "2023-03-01"
) |>
  collect()

The get_*() functions return a query that runs in BigQuery; nothing is downloaded until you call collect(). See Getting started for more details.

For developers

See DEVELOPERS.md.