Discover-NOW - Our Hub for Real World Evidence

Visit the Discover-NOW website

Discover-NOW, led by Imperial College Health Partners, is the Health Data Research Hub for Real World Evidence. Discover-NOW brings together NHS organisations, globally recognised academic, industry, technology, research and charity partners as well as patients and the public and aims to revolutionise the way health data is used responsibly for research into treating and preventing disease.

The Discover-NOW Hub provides a gateway to one of the largest deidentified linked health and care datasets in Europe (2.5 million people), Discover-NOW can connect you to a Real World Evidence validation ecosystem through a Trusted Research Environment which has been co-designed with citizens.

The Discover data is the NWL de-identified dataset – linked coded primary care, secondary, acute, mental health, community health and social care record for patients who live and are registered with a GP in North West London, with new data feeds frequently being acquired.

Discover-NOW supports clinicians, researchers and scientists to:

Recruit patients to studies
Develop new treatments
Manage and prevent health conditions
Test and evaluate innovations

The Hub also offers leading regulation ready and GDPR compliant tools, technologies and expertise to support Real World Evidence health research and improvements. These include a high-performance analytics environment, methods including machine learning, a feasibility and research recruitment tool, as well as a consent to contact register of more than 6,000 people.

About Discover-NOW

Discover-NOW is pioneering the use of Real World Evidence in health research. Real World Evidence research is based instead on health data that is collected in real world settings such as routine appointments and from mobile devices. This data gives a richer insight through allowing researchers to better design and conduct studies about potential treatments and the impact they could have on the health of the population.

At Discover-NOW all our work is underpinned by the Five Safes:
- Safe projects
- Safe people
- Safe setting
- Safe outputs
- Safe data
Discover-NOW enables research through:
- Feasibility studies: Run complex and powerful searches over the rich deidentified linked dataset of 2.5m population to inform protocol design and study feasibility.
- Retrospective studies: Generate data driven insights and analysis into populations and cohorts, using the rich linked longitudinal health and care data.
- Patient identification and recruitment: Using leading edge tools such as FARSITE and the North West London Research Register to help find and match patients to clinical trials.
- Health economic evaluations: Support the evaluation of new products or interventions through analysis of real world evidence
- AI and machine learning: Develop and test predictive AI approaches to determine if your technologies are effective and scalable
- Health implementation: Ensure learnings from your research can deliver real world impact for patients.
Discover-NOW can only revolutionise the way health information is used to treat and prevent disease in the future with the support and trust of our communities and wider population. Our approach to patient and public involvement and engagement includes:
- Empowering individuals to be more involved in research
- Involving people with lived experience
- Working in partnerships with research charities
- Engaging community leaders and champions
- Involving our population through deliberation
We are committed and are working in partnership with the public, patients and professionals to understand what additional safeguards and controls need to be in place to ensure trusted access to, and use of, depersonalised data.

Discover-NOW Case Studies

Case study

Discover-NOW Feasibility, Patient Identification and Recruitment services

22 August 2022

Discover-Now is a real-world evidence (RWE) Hub providing a validation ecosystem using patient data to test health care innovations and treatments and prevent disease.

Case study

Discover-NOW and our work with Health Implementation Industry Partner AstraZeneca

22 August 2022

Discover-Now is a real-world evidence (RWE) Hub providing a validation ecosystem using patient data to test health care innovations and treatments and prevent disease.

Further information:

Visit the Discover-NOW website

Discover Discover-NOW on the Gateway

Follow Discover-NOW on Twitter