News and Perspectives

Monday 1 August 2022 marks an important step in our development: the full launch of the DataLoch service. This important milestone represents the first time where researchers from beyond the South-East Scotland region can apply for access to the health and social care data we host.

Local residents have shared their perspectives to support the development of the DataLoch service. Prior to the full DataLoch service launch, the team commissioned Ipsos Scotland to undertake a public consultation of local residents. The aim was to inform DataLoch’s governance framework for data access requests.

A current priority of the DataLoch team is to explore the diverse views of South-East Scotland residents around access to health data. To meet this ambition, we have recently worked closely with Ipsos Scotland to develop a new survey and discussion-based workshops; the results of the survey element have now been published.

My take on IG is “write it down”. What do you want to do, why, and how? This is for everything: Data Protection Impact Assessments, application forms, protocols, Standard Operating Procedures, working processes, data-sharing agreements, and so on. That’s all it is: write it down.

Lay Summaries and Public Benefit Statements are valuable parts of DataLoch applications. They present an informative overview of the key purposes and potential real-world impacts for first-time readers and non-specialists. As well as being essential for the Projects Delivered section on the DataLoch website, these sections are vital for proposal reviewers, ultimately influencing the chances of an application being successful. Therefore, applicants have to present summaries that are genuinely meaningful to those who are reading their proposals for the first time. To support this goal, DataLoch’s Public Reference Group offers the following advice to applicants based on their reviewing experiences.

DataLoch has incorporated a significant selection of HDR UK Phenotypes within our repository. Through these, our aim is to ease the burden on researchers who seek DataLoch-hosted data within their projects.

…some of us wear regular clothes and use R and SQL to analyse data, as one of our Data Analysts, Sophie McCall, explains.

On 20 October 2021, DataLoch became one of the newest members of the UK Health Data Research Alliance (“the Alliance”). Member organisations work together to develop and coordinate the adoption of standards, tools and technologies for the secure and trustworthy use of data in health research.