New data alliance to enhance medical research

The newly formed UK Health Data Research Alliance will develop new ways to design and support the medical research of the future, to improve the care patients receive from the NHS.

Focusing on the best ways to design, use, collect, manage and analyse health data in a responsible way for clinical trials, medical research, and innovation, the alliance will bring together organisations and digital health leaders to mobilise the UK’s health data for science and innovation. It also aims to make health data more accessible and improve data quality in order to build a more innovative and efficient health and care system.

Health Data Research UK and NHS Digital are the first partners to join the Alliance with other organisations expected to follow soon. Building a set of governance policies and standards to open up health data, the work will see NHS Digital and Health Data Research UK agree an approach to using data to better inform clinical trials and to design systems that allow data from across the English healthcare system to be accessible in real time.

Sarah Wilkinson, chief executive of NHS Digital, said: “At NHS Digital we are very excited about the potential for our partnership with HDR UK, which is based on a commitment to deep collaborative engagement and co-creation of all aspects of the infrastructure necessary to foster innovation in Life Sciences in the UK, from data acquisition and management to data platform design and delivery to ethical governance of health and care data. A dynamic partnership between the NHS, academia and industry is critical to create the necessary environment for the sector to continue to thrive and to maintain its status as a world leader.”

Andrew Morris, director of Health Data Research UK, added: “Creating the UK Health Data Research Alliance is an exciting and unique opportunity to bring together the fantastic capability in health data science that we have across the UK.  We have the opportunity to democratise health data research. I am delighted to announce our partnership with NHS Digital, which is an important milestone in establishing the Alliance.  I look forward to welcoming our future partners to this important initiative that has the potential to accelerate improvements in health and care and ensure patients across the UK have access to world leading research and innovation."