News and Perspectives

The leadership of Kathy Harrison, our Programme Lead, has been warmly recognised by the Digital Leader Award received at the Holyrood Connect Digital Health and Care Awards 2025.

In addition to updating the data we host – including our Respiratory Registry – there are a number of exciting DataLoch developments to share. We have significantly improved prescriptions data to offer new research opportunities. We are also incorporating more non-medical data within our repository to enhance the potential for exploring other influences on population health and wellbeing.

As part of our continuous programme of incorporating further datasets into our repository to enhance our support for research and innovation, we are delighted to announce new data related to prescriptions on discharge from hospital as well as improved community (non-hospital) prescribing data.

An important aspect of DataLoch’s mission is to support research into the social determinants of health: non-medical factors that influence a person’s health and wellbeing. The characteristics of where a person lives – urban or rural setting; distance from health facilities and other amenities; crime rates; and so on – can all greatly impact an individual’s health. These geospatial (location-related) data can therefore offer important context when undertaking health research.

NHS Lothian uses the TrakCare clinical system across its care services. Within TrakCare, there is an abundance of critical data that cover all patient interactions with NHS Lothian hospitals, such as: referrals, attendance details, test requests and results, details of treatments, and patient-discharge information.

In 2024, DataLoch has played a key role in bringing complementary services together to greatly improve the support available for those at risk of experiencing homelessness. For example, we have developed a close relationship with the NHS Lothian Analytical Services’ (LAS) Public Health Team and enabled them to better support InReach workers at Cyrenians: a Scottish charity tackling the causes and consequences of homelessness.

Through our close partnership, DataLoch and Edinburgh Cancer Informatics ensure cancer data enables vital contributions to a range of research and innovation priorities.

Our latest update takes a close look at some of the work we do at DataLoch beyond preparing data extracts for NHS service-improvement projects or novel research explorations. There’s a lot that goes on in the background…