What We Do
Our mission is to unite the UK’s health and care data to enable discoveries that improve people’s lives. We do this by uniting, improving and using health and care data as one national institute.
Our Vision
Our 20-year vision is for large scale data and advanced analytics to benefit every patient interaction, clinical trial, biomedical discovery and enhance public health.
Health data research explained
Health data research is an exciting and developing area and can make positive changes in health and care for everyone. There are lots of examples of how health data science has improved our knowledge and helped to solve challenging health problems.
Research case studies
Case study examples of where Health Data Research UK has enabled research across the UK.
How we operate
We are uniting health data assets across the UK to make health data research and innovation happen at scale. We work with people who share a common set of values of transparency, optimism, respect, courage and humility (TORCH)
Our approach
Health Data Research UK is the only national institute for health data that includes England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It was established to work with a wide range of health data from the NHS, universities, research institutes and charities, private companies and from wearable and mobile technologies.
Our work with patients and the public
We work and learn from the needs and experiences of members of the public and people using the health and care system.
Our aim
By making health data available to researchers and innovators we can better understand diseases and discover ways to prevent, treat and cure them. Challenges to human health are increasing globally. By making health data available to researchers, we can develop a better understanding of these diseases and ways to prevent, treat and cure them.
Why is the UK the best place for health data research?
The UK has some of the richest health data in the world, making it possible to make national-scale improvements to health and care. Combined with unique research expertise, outstanding talent in the NHS and universities, and a vibrant life sciences industry, the UK has an opportunity to use data at scale to drive innovation, grow the UK industry base, and improve public health.
Open science and open code
We do not control any health data. We work with organisations that hold and manage datasets and we support connections between these datasets to support access for research and innovation. Our approach is guided by existing and developing recommendations and best practice for data research.
