News and Perspectives

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. These sections are vital for proposal reviewers, ultimately influencing the chances of a data-access application being successful.

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.

In light of the COVID-19 crisis, in March 2020 colleagues from NHS Lothian and the University of Edinburgh asked the DataLoch team to help in the production of a dedicated COVID-19-linked dataset. This request was motivated by a need to support immediate hospital-based service management and to provide a foundation for active and anticipated regional and national research into the outbreak.

The DataLoch team has been working with a group of GPs in North-East Edinburgh to design an automated report, which captures when people are considered frail and helps to understand what proactive assessments have been completed for these patients.