Health datasets to conduct research
At 67 million people, the UK has a large and diverse population cared for in a single healthcare system, with unique patient identifiers.
The breadth and longevity of this data makes the UK a data-rich nation, unparalleled globally, and holds huge potential for health data research.
We support multiple initiatives to enable the life sciences industry to access and curate health data. Our dedicated Industry team can help you to identify and engage with the initiative or service best suited to your therapeutic area, research stage, and innovation.
Our support will be most beneficial if you contact us at an early stage in your research planning. We will provide bespoke support that meets your needs and provides benefits throughout the full life-cycle of your study.
Support to access and curate health data
We can help you to:
- access providers of broad and deep datasets of omics and across primary and secondary care
- access data on large and diverse populations
- connect with leading researchers and centres to curate and access specific datasets
- access diverse healthcare system data such as patient reported outcomes, wearables, transport of materials, movement of people, and others
- generate new data suited to your research and development needsnavigate the governance aspect of accessing data
- curate data and develop machine learning models
Discover some of the health data sources in the UK
NIHR BioResource, a recallable resource
The NIHR BioResource is a recallable resource of over 250,000 volunteers who have agreed to take part in health-related research. Patients are recruited into several participant cohorts including common and rare diseases across the general population. Our BioResource supports industry researchers to access genetic and clinical data, stored samples, recruitment of volunteers, and recall participants by genotype or phenotype.
Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD)
Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) is a real-world research service supporting retrospective and prospective public health and clinical studies. CPRD research data services are delivered by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency with support from us - the NIHR - as part of the Department of Health and Social Care.
Health Data Research UK, the national institute for health data science
Health Data Research UK (HDRUK) unites the UK's health data to enable research discoveries through access to large scale data and advanced analytics.
HDRUK provides a common entry point to discover and request access to UK health datasets. It supports the life sciences industry, researchers, clinicians and healthcare professionals to access health data tools, research projects, publications and collaborate through a community forum.
The NIHR is one of nine UK research funders awarding more than £70 million in funding to HDRUK.
HDRUK hosts 8 Health Data Research Hubs.
- Alleviate Pain Data Hub - curates UK chronic pain data, creating a central resource for pain researchers to discover and query datasets in a secure, federated manner.
- BHF Data Hub - enables research using health data into the causes, prevention and treatment of all diseases of the heart and circulation (such heart attacks, stroke and vascular dementia).
- DATA-CAN Data Hub - the UK’s health data research hub for cancer. A unique partnership of NHS organisations, patients, charities, academia and industry working across all of the UK to unlock the power of health data to improve cancer care.
- DATAMIND Data Hub - the hub for mental health informatics research development.
- DISCOVER-NOW Data Hub - brings together NHS organisations, globally recognised academic, industry, technology, research and charity partners, and patients and the public to focus on the use of real-world health data for research.
- Gut Reaction Data Hub - facilitates Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) research. Brings together genomic and phenotypic data from patients in the IBD BioResource with real-world data from participating NHS Hospitals and other national datasets.
- INSIGHT Data Hub - an NHS-led initiative set up to make routinely collected eye data available for approved health research.
- PIONEER Data Hub - the health data research hub for acute care is improving patient care by making routinely collected health data available to doctors, researchers and academics.
UK Biobank, enabling scientific discoveries
The UK Biobank is a large-scale biomedical database and research resource, containing in-depth, de-identified genetic and health information from half a million UK participants.
The database, which is regularly augmented with additional data, is globally accessible to approved researchers from academic, charity, government and commercial organisations for health-related research that is in the public interest.
UK Biobank’s research resource is a major contributor to the advancement of modern medicine and treatment. It has enabled several scientific discoveries that improve human health in the most common and life-threatening diseases.
Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS)
The Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) system is a computer system that allows researchers at the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) to carry out research using information from South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust clinical records. CRIS is safe and secure, and patients' personal details cannot be accessed by researchers who use it.
Explore more support from the NIHR
This service is just one of the ways we help life science organisations. Visit our NIHR support for industry page to discover our full range of support or explore all our services and support.
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