Making NHS data work for everyone

The NHS’s medical records have often been referred to as a ‘gold mine’ in the press. However, the NHS’s data is a raw and rough resource. This means that before plugging into an AI algorithm, for example, it needs a lot of refining. Making sure that data is correctly cleaned and labelled is a labour-intensive and time-consuming process, even for big tech companies. This might have an impact on both the type of private sector firms that choose to partner with the NHS and on the type of projects they chose to do.

Currently NHS trusts are collaborating with various tech companies to create new products using NHS data. Moorfields Eye Hospital is working with DeepMind, IBM Watson is being used at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Cera – a London-based start-up – is building a social care app in partnership with ten NHS organisations. These exciting medical advances could have a great positive impact on patient outcomes. The NHS could arguably benefit from trying to develop these technologies in-house. However, given its budgetary constraints and the skills gap it faces, this solution seems unlikely. This means that the NHS will have to find ways of benefiting from public-private partnerships.

Reform is delighted to convene this two-panel event to discuss: the value of healthcare data; and, what a mutually beneficial arrangement between patients, the NHS and industry might look like when there is access to or transfer of patient data to create a product? The event will be held under the Chatham House Rule.

Agenda

08.30            Registration and breakfast 

09:00            Welcome and introduction

• • Eleonora Harwich, Head of Digital and Tech Innovation, Reform

09.05            Panel session one: What is the value of healthcare data?

How can the value of NHS data be defined (e.g. economic and financial value, public health value of data, etc)? What is the value of the NHS data in its ‘raw’ form (i.e. prior to data being cleaned and validated)? Does data quality have an impact on the type of organisations that can operate in public sector markets or on the type of projects organisations chose to do?

This panel will explore the above questions during this chaired discussion with the panellists followed by a twenty-minute Q&A from the audience. Panellists include:

• • Eric Collins, Chief Operating Officer, Touch Surgery

• • Saira Ghafur, Director of the Sowerby Forum, Policy Fellow Digital Health Centre for Health Policy, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London

• • Indra Joshi, Digital Health and AI Clinical Lead, NHS England

• • Nicola Perrin, Lead, Understanding Patient Data

• • Chair: Hetan Shah, Executive Director Royal Statistical Society

10:15         Panel session two: What does a mutually beneficial arrangement between patients, the NHS and industry look like when there is transfer of or access to patient data to create a product?

What constitutes a fair deal for patients, the NHS and industry when there is a transfer of or access to NHS patient data to a private company to create a product? How best can policymakers and healthcare practitioners ensure this transfer or access agreement is done in a way that maximises the public health value and protects the interests of patients?

Should patients be compensated by companies who use their data to create healthcare products that will be used within the NHS? What form should a fair deal take (profit-sharing, golden shares, sharing of IP or other)?

This panel will explore the above questions during our second chaired discussion with the panellists followed by a twenty-minute Q&A from the audience. Panellists include:

• • Daniel Ray, Director of Data, NHS Digital

• • Lydia Torne, Managing Associate, Simmons & Simmons

• • William Warr, Policy Advisor for the UK’s Industrial Strategy Champion and DPhil student in health policy at the University of Oxford

• • Chair: Sophia Adams Bhatti, Director of Legal & Regulatory Policy, Law Society

11:25            Closing remarks

Eleonora Harwich, Head of Digital and Tech Innovation, Reform

11:30            Snacks and networking

12:00             Close