NHS England has opened an online portal to give health researchers access to its secure data environment (SDE) network.
Its head of life sciences and public sector partnerships, Jake Marshall, said the ‘common front door’ was launched at the end of last year in a partnership with Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), the national institute for health data science.
SDEs have been developed to give health researchers secure access to data held by healthcare organisations.
The portal provides access to details of data custodians for all the regional SDEs, a range of datasets (currently totalling 78), documents on data uses (193), analysis scripts and software – for whole system integrated care dashboards and information for care professionals – publications (65) and collections (17).
Marshall said that NHS England and HDR UK are aiming to add new features to the operation of the SDE network, including a single data access request form and validation policy, a standardised contracting approach and a ‘prime SDE’ model for federated research projects.
Feedback and improvement
He added: “Creating a consistently excellent customer experience relies on continuous improvement underpinned by ongoing stakeholder and patient feedback.
“Continued collaboration will enable us to deliver rapid, secure access to the world’s largest linked health datasets for research. This will improve care, support innovation and sustain the NHS.”
He also invited researchers to join the Health Data User Group.
