A new service at UCLH and UCL launched last week will support researchers in using anonymised data for research.
SAFEHR (Secure and Anonymised Framework for Electronic Health Records) will streamline data access and extraction for researchers – particularly for datasets which contain multiple types of data including imaging data, structured or ‘coded’ data from health records, and ‘unstructured’ data such as free text information.
A joint UCLH-UCL team manages the service, bringing together software developers, data engineers, clinicians, governance experts and programme managers.
Data access is streamlined thanks to the Data Access Process for Research (DAP-R) run by SAFEHR. This is an approvals process for anonymised data access for in-house research studies that fulfil certain criteria.
DAP-R enables UCLH to approve these projects internally, rather than approvals taking place at national level via the Health Research Authority.
If you are a researcher who is interested in learning more about data access and extraction via SAFEHR, you can log a data access request, or ask a question, via SAFEHR online.
You can also contact the team via: uclh.safehr -at- nhs.net
Research increasingly depends on data, making proper data access and extraction essential.
SAFEHR is led by UCLH Chief Research Information Officer Dr Steve Harris and is supported by the NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre.
Patients, staff and the public are also involved in SAFEHR through the Data Trust Committee. This committee considers applications to work with data and helps ensure responsible data access.
Dr Harris said: “Our aim is to make it easier for researchers to work with data in research, and to provide the proper governance around research with data, so that all data is appropriately anonymised and accessed safely. We are grateful to our patient, public and staff partners who, through the Data Trust Committee, support us in enabling data-based research which is done safely and responsibly – while at the same time helping us ensure a speedy process for researchers looking to access data.”
