Proposals for data-driven health improvements in Liverpool

Proposals have been announced for a project that could improve a number of health and social care areas in Liverpool through better use of data and technologies.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is set to approve funding of £5.3 million for a project that could revolutionise how data is used to deliver better care for residents and create new health technology jobs in the region.

In partnership with local residents and service users, Liverpool Health Partners will use the financing to combine and improve their facilities for analysing anonymised health and social care data.

Working as a ‘Civic Data Co-operative’ it will provide better insights into care needs and enhancing data security across the many NHS and local government organisations that provide care. These insights will foster innovations that improve care, such as technologies to help people with complex health conditions live better at home, or to help clinicians react quicker to prevent diseases getting worse.

By working together as a Liverpool City Region Civic Data Co-operative, care services will be able to both plan and deliver care that is better integrated across different services – for example, social care worker, district nurse and GP visits responding to a resident’s needs at the right time.

This can include preventing falls among older people, using data from in-home sensors, detecting complications of diabetes earlier by training AI to read eye photograph data, and reducing infections for everyone by training AI to help GPs chose the right antibiotic for the right bug in the right patient at the right time.

Pat Hackett, Portfolio Holder for Inclusive Growth and Third Sector, said: “In the 19th century our city region led the way in public health, through Kitty Wilkinson’s establishment of the first public washhouses and Dr Duncan’s appointment as the world’s first public health officer.

“In the 21st century we are already leading the way as pioneers of projects using the power of data to improve how we deliver health services and improve the health outcomes of individuals. Creating a Civic Data Co-operative that combines anonymised social care and health data has the potential to be a very powerful tool for tackling some of the most important health issues we face today.

“Working together with colleagues in health and higher education and bringing to bear the creativity of our burgeoning digital skills sector, gives us the opportunity to create something that can lead the way in public health for city regions around the world.”

Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, added: “We already have significant strengths in health and life sciences and the digital and creative sector which this innovative project would marry together. This Civic Data Co-operative would be a radical new approach to public health. It has the potential to make a huge difference to the health and wellbeing of our city region at the same time as putting us at the forefront of a new sector that could generate significant numbers of high-quality jobs for local people.”