Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) has won £72.3 million in funding to continue its work over the next five years.
The national institute for health data science has obtained the money from a number of government and charities, including UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates, Health and Care Research Wales and Health and Social Care Research and Development in Northern Ireland.
UKRI said the funding is aligned to its strategic theme of ‘Securing better health, ageing and wellbeing’, and will support HDR UK’s core work to accelerate trustworthy access to health data and improve treatments, deliver better healthcare and save lives.
It will support work in tackling some of the biggest global health crises, including cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This will involve promoting the use of large datasets in different areas, tackling the current fragmentation and lack of standardisation in the data, and involving patients in the institute’s work.
Key to understanding
Minister of State for Health Will Quince MP said: “Data is key to better understanding the health of individuals and the population as a whole. With increased use of data we can speed up diagnoses and even predict outcomes and prevent conditions from developing.
“Health Data Research UK is leading the way in progressing safe, secure access to information, backed by £15 million of government funding through NIHR, to accelerate trustworthy access to large datasets.
“This will help improve treatments by identifying individual risk factors to how diseases are passed on from one person to another, deliver better care and ensure a better quality of life for patients both now and in the future.”
