UK Health Data Research Alliance welcomes three new members

The new members are: 

• The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust who provides hospital and community healthcare services across the North-West of England
• The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, the largest and most comprehensive cancer centre in Europe 
• The National Pathology Imaging Co-operative (NPIC) (hosted by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust) a centre of excellence in digital pathology 

These organisations join 67 existing Alliance members that represent the UK’s leading healthcare and research organisations. Through the Alliance, members are working collaboratively to help researchers address some of the most difficult and important health challenges facing the UK through establishing best practice in the use of health data.   

Professor Steve Woby, Managing Director of Research & Innovation Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, says: “The NCA is committed to providing responsible access to health data for research and innovation purposes, and we are delighted to join the Alliance and look forward to working with partners from across the healthcare sector to further develop best practice in this important area.”  

Dr Richard Lee, Chief Research Information Officer and Senior Lead on behalf of  The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, says: “We are excited to be working with the Alliance to drive the best digital oncology research in collaboration with other UK centres. By joining, we hope to make new important discoveries with real-world and structured research data that will inform the next generation of tools for early cancer diagnosis and cutting-edge therapies.”  

Professor Darren Treanor, Director at the National Pathology Imaging Co-operative and a pathologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, says: “The National Pathology Imaging Co-operative is pleased to join the UK Health Data Research Alliance. This will support our work in the development and deployment of digital pathology across the NHS. Through our collaboration, we hope to continue to make important new discoveries through digital pathology and the development of Artificial Intelligence tools for cancer diagnosis.”   

Dr Daljeet Bansal, Operations Director at the National Pathology Imaging Co-operative, says: “NPIC looks forward to working with the Alliance members and building successful partnerships, strengthening the UK’s position in imaging data for research and innovation”. 

These new members are welcomed by the UK Health Data Research Alliance who recognises the opportunity for all members to access rich and diverse health data and to champion ethical data sharing. 

Paola Quattroni, Head of Alliance Strategy and Engagement for HDR UK, says: “We warmly welcome these new members to the UK Health Data Research Alliance and the rich data they provide. Having them onboard helps deliver our mission to make significant improvements to people’s lives through ethical health data research.” 

New members help develop and co-ordinate the adoption of tools, techniques, conventions, technologies, and standards that enable the use of health data in a trustworthy and ethical way for research and innovation. 

Research based on this data enables new discoveries and improved understanding of disease that reflects the diverse demographics of the UK population. This in turn provides fairer access to the latest treatments and medical technologies, benefiting as many people as possible.  

All members are invited to develop best practice and standards in areas such as privacy, transparency, public engagement, inclusivity and governance to ensure that health data is shared and used responsibly by researchers and innovators.    

The Alliance is convened by Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) and is part of the UK-wide capability for the responsible use of health data for research and innovation, funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF). 

Any requests to access data held by Alliance members on the gateway for research and innovation will continue to go through their existing protocols to ensure strict security and data privacy.  

More about our new members  

Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust 

The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust was established on 1 October 2021 bringing together Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. NCA provides hospital and community healthcare services in Salford, Oldham, Bury and Rochdale.

Their dedicated team of around 20,000 staff delivers high standards of care and experience excellence to over one million people across Greater Manchester and across the North West. 

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust  

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust opened its doors in 1851 as the world’s first hospital dedicated to cancer diagnosis, treatment, research and education. 

Today, together with its academic partner, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), it is the largest and most comprehensive cancer centre in Europe seeing and treating over 59,000 NHS and private patients every year.  

It is a centre of excellence with an international reputation for ground-breaking research and pioneering the very latest in cancer treatments and technologies.  
From funding state-of-the-art equipment and ground-breaking research, to creating the very best patient environments, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity supports The Royal Marsden by continually looking for ways to improve the lives of people affected by cancer.  

National Pathology Imaging Co-operative (hosted by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust)

The National Pathology Imaging Co-operative (NPIC) is a centre of excellence in digital pathology and artificial intelligence, digitising over 30 hospitals in the NHS and creating two national networks for specialist cancer diagnosis.  

The NPIC (Project no. 104687) is supported by a £50m investment from the Data to Early Diagnosis and Precision Medicine challenge, which is managed and delivered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).