Government allocates £600m to launch Health Data Research Service

The UK Government has committed £600m to launch a national Health Data Research Service – a key recommendation from the Sudlow Review.

Cathie Sudlow, Professor of Neurology and Clinical Epidemiology at the Usher Institute, led a pivotal review of the UK's health data landscape, culminating in her influential publication 'The Sudlow Review | Uniting the UK’s Health Data: A Huge Opportunity for Society'. Just five months after its publication, the UK Government has announced a landmark investment of £600m to establish a national Health Data Research Service (HDRS).

The HDRS, one of the key recommendations of Sudlow's comprehensive review, aims to streamline access to crucial health data for researchers. This initiative is poised to revolutionise healthcare research by facilitating faster and more efficient data-driven studies. Supported by funding from both the UK Government and the Wellcome Trust, the HDRS promises to accelerate medical breakthroughs and improve patient outcomes on a national scale.

As a doctor and researcher, the announcement of a Health Data Research Service is a day many of us have been waiting for. It is a big investment in the future health of the nation.

We have a rich abundance of health data in this country thanks to the NHS. The team at HDR UK demonstrated for the first time last year that UK wide studies harnessing data on 68m people is possible for public benefit. But the system remains slow and fragmented which means that safe and secure research using the data is delayed or prevented for months and years. This is stalling advances that could benefit millions of patients and is wasting taxpayers’ money and medical charity donations invested in research.

A Health Data Research Service was the main recommendation of the Sudlow Review, which offered a set of solutions to tackle these problems and for which Health Data Research UK provided the secretariat. So I am delighted that within a few months of publication, we are seeing action.

Professor Andrew Morris Director of Health Data Research UK and former Director of the Usher Institute

The announcement of a Health Data Research Service, a central recommendation of my recently published review of the UK’s health data landscape, is a major step forward for UK health research. It has the potential to be a game-changer by accelerating secure, trustworthy, data-driven research to improve patient care and public health for the tens of millions of people in this country and beyond.

The service should enable faster, more reliable access for approved researchers to the data needed to tackle society’s most pressing health research needs – to develop and test new approaches for preventing, diagnosing and treating health conditions such as cancer, dementia, heart disease, depression, arthritis and infectious outbreaks. It should support better studies, quicker answers for the health and care system and, ultimately, faster, better outcomes for patients and their families.

Turning this investment from the UK Government and Wellcome into something that delivers will demand focus, cooperation across multiple organisations, attention to detail and – crucially – ongoing, meaningful involvement of patients, public and health and care professionals. However, with the UK’s rich health data assets and strong life sciences and data science research capabilities, I am confident that we can make this work for everyone’s benefit.

Professor Cathie Sudlow Professor of Neurology and Clinical Epidemiology at the Usher Institute
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