Secondary Care

NHSX forms Centre for Improving Data Collaboration

NHSX has launched a new working group to support healthcare teams and industry develop data partnerships.

The Centre for Improving Data Collaboration has been created to provide advice and support to help drive data driven innovations and accelerate work where necessary.

The group has been formed to help healthcare teams find the right industry partners, support commercial negotiations, regulatory processes, and any related expertise required to support the NHS get the best value from its data.

In a blog post published last week, Matthew Gould, Chief Executive, NHSX commented: “Good quality data is crucial to driving innovation in healthcare. It can unlock new technologies, power the development of AI, accelerate clinical trials and enable better interactions with patients.”

“The patient data held by the NHS holds enormous potential for the NHS to improve what it does, and for industry to develop new therapies and tools. To fulfil its promise we need both to uphold the sanctity of patient confidentiality, and to make best use of the data to improve health and care for all.”

“This needs us to work closely with industry to accelerate progress – a partnership whose necessity became even clearer during the COVID-19 pandemic. But we need to do so on the basis of clear principles that give both the public and professions confidence in how the data is being used. We are accountable to the public and we must continue to earn their trust. So partnerships should always be constructed thoughtfully, and in line with the Department of Health and Social Care’s five guiding principles.”

The group is being led by Catherine Pollard, Director of Centre of Expertise, who has held private sector and NHS roles previously.

The team also aims to learn from successful partnerships and programmes in place and help to share data partnerships.

Contact improvingdatacollaboration@nhsx.nhs.uk for further details.