FAQs
What is the Barts Health Data Platform?
The Barts Health Data Platform (BHDP) is a secure environment for accessing and analysing hospital data. It supports research by providing approved users with access to relevant datasets in private, controlled workspaces. The platform is managed by the hospital’s IT team to ensure strong data governance and patient confidentiality. BHDP enables high-impact studies that help improve care and advance medical knowledge.
How will the BHDP improve my health?
Barts Health NHS Trust collects data throughout a patient’s journey, from check-in to test results like bloods, x-rays, and scans. The BHDP helps approved researchers and clinicians explore this data to spot patterns and trends. This can lead to earlier diagnosis, better treatments, and improved outcomes for patients. It’s about turning everyday data into insights that make a real difference.
How will I, the patient benefit from the BHDP?
The BHDP gives approved researchers secure access to patient data to study local health challenges and explore new medical solutions. By turning data into useful insights, we can help doctors make better decisions. Over time, this research will lead to real benefits for individual patients and the wider community. It’s a vital step in improving healthcare through evidence and innovation.
How will Barts Heath enable research into patient data?
Patient data for research is stored in a secure hospital database called the Analysis Data Core. This data stays protected within the hospital, just like all other patient records. For each approved project, only the specific data needed is shared. Depending on consent and permissions, this may include full, partial, anonymised, or pseudonymised records.
Who has access to my medical data?
Only authorised staff can access your medical data. Your immediate care team uses it to support your treatment. Some hospital staff may also access it for things like performance and legal reporting. Anyone else must apply for access and explain why they need it—this is carefully reviewed to protect your privacy.
How can someone outside of the hospital get access to my medical records?
The medical teams in the hospital routinely take part in research projects and may approach you to join a study. If they do, they will discuss the data they will collect, how it will be used, how long the data will be kept for, and how if you change your mind the data will be withdrawn from the study. Barts Health describes the data that we may collect during your interactions with the hospital and how we handle it in the privacy notice.
Can my medical records be released without my explicit consent?
Yes, in some cases. For example, a research project might request data for all patients aged 50 to 55 treated for high blood pressure. Every request is carefully reviewed and must be approved by the hospital’s Caldicott Guardian, who ensures it meets strict legal and ethical rules to protect your information. If you do not want your medical data to be used for such research and planning purposes, you can opt out online.
Stricter controls apply to data requests that include personal data (for example, name, date of birth, home address or NHS number). These requests need to have a legal basis for the release of personal details. Further information can be found on the NHS Digital website.
What is anonymised or pseudonymised data?
Anonymised data has all personal details like names and dates of birth removed, so the individual cannot be identified. Pseudonymised data replaces personal details with a unique code, but the hospital keeps the link to the patient secure. This means the hospital can still identify the patient if needed, while keeping the data protected.
What is a Caldicott Guardian?
A Caldicott Guardian is a hospital official who makes sure sensitive patient data is shared safely and properly. They follow eight key principles, including only using confidential information when necessary, sharing the minimum needed, and keeping access limited to those who really need it. They also ensure everyone understands their responsibilities and that patients are informed about how their data is used. More details are available https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-caldicott-principles.
What is Precision Medicine?
Precision medicine uses all available healthcare data, like medical records, genetics, environment, and lifestyle to understand a person’s health risks and find the best treatment for them. The BHDP helps collect data not only from Barts Health but also from other partners like GPs, with permission. By analysing this complete information, doctors can make better, personalised treatment decisions for each patient.
Will you sell my health data to commercial organisations?
Any commercial company requesting access to patient data as part of a study will have to meet the same requirements as any other data access request to receive hospital data. Any company that does meet these requirements will be under a contractual obligation to keep the data confidential and to only use it for the stated purposes. They will only get the data that they need to undertake the study – this is unlikely to include your individual contact details unless you have explicitly consented to be part of the study.
Why do you charge to access my health data?
The BHDP is not fully funded by the NHS and is currently supported by Barts Charity. To keep the platform running after this funding ends, we charge for access to cover the costs of preparing and sharing data. If organisations make money from analysing our patient data, we make sure the hospital and community get a fair share.
How can I find out more or stay connected?
You can visit the BHDP and Barts Life Science websites for the latest updates. To receive news about the Precision Medicine Program by email, please contact bartshealth.researchdata@nhs.net to subscribe
How can I opt out of my data being used?
If you do not want your data to be used for anything other than your medical care and related administrative processing, then you can visit NHS Digital website (https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/) and set your data opt out choice.
What is data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning and do you use them on my medical data?
Data science uses statistics to study large sets of data and understand trends, like how long patients wait for treatment. Artificial intelligence (AI) uses computer programs to find patterns and predict what might happen next, such as spotting if a medication dose doesn’t match a patient’s record. Machine learning is a type of AI that learns from data and improves over time. For example, it can help diagnose illnesses from medical images by learning from past cases. We use these methods carefully to improve healthcare while keeping your data safe.