The analysis of health data from large numbers of patients is a vital resource to help to discover knowledge that can be used to improve health, health care and research.
Sources of health data
There are many different kinds of data that are useful for discovering new knowledge, such as:
- electronic health records of patients within hospitals and general practices
- information entered by patients and healthy people using mobile applications
- data from other public services, like transport, climate and pollution.
Users of health data
This data analysis, under strict data protection rules, and the development of new knowledge is undertaken by a wide range of public bodies and by industry, including:
- universities and research centres
- public health agencies
- regulatory authorities
- pharmaceutical companies
- medical device manufacturers.
Transparency
i~HD is encouraging these organisations to publish the results of their analyses, and to make clear how they have used data when developing a new medicine or device or software product, so the public can see the value of how their data have been used.
Alongside this, we are encouraging these organisations to explain how they have protected the data whilst undertaking their analysis.
Discover real-world examples
It is often helpful to understand the many possible uses of data through examples. We have collected together case studies that illustrate different uses of data, for different disease areas, by different organisations and to discover knowledge that leads to different kinds of benefit.
We are building up a library of these case studies, by contacting many organisations across Europe so that we can present brief summaries and link to their case study details. We are particularly grateful to DataSavesLives, UnderstandingPatientData, and UseMyData for providing case studies for our library.
