The Health Data Research Service Digital Ecosystem Analysis, recently published by Emrys Health, Nesta and Wellcome, provides a comprehensive overview of the UK’s health data infrastructure across all four nations. Eastern England SDE was pleased to contribute to the report.
The central finding will be familiar to many working in this space. The UK has world-class health data capability, but it remains fragmented and difficult to access. The components for a high-performing national research service exist, but what’s missing is the connective architecture to bring them together.
The national network of SDEs has a critical role to play in addressing this. Far from standalone initiatives, regional SDEs are providing the foundation for more efficient, secure access to health data at scale, aligned to the priorities of the emerging Health Data Research Service.
Eastern England SDE is proud to support health data research capability across several regions, including through a platform-as-a-service model that allows other SDEs to benefit from the infrastructure and approaches we have developed.
The report’s focus on national standards for Trusted Research Environments (TREs) is also welcome. In addition to securing ISO27001 internationally recognised information security accreditation, the Eastern England SDE has been actively supporting the development of SATRE as a reference architecture for TREs, and SACRO (Semi-Automated Checking of Research Outputs) tooling, which can also facilitate the safe use of AI in health data research.
As well as meeting these specifications, we have been testing their implementation across our SDE to help inform a national rollout. You can read more about this work in our latest article. The Eastern England SDE evaluation against SATRE requirements is available as open access here.
The ambitions for the future of UK health research are exciting and achievable. Eastern England SDE looks forward to supporting the HDRS on this journey.