NHS England has published a new Framework for NHS Boards: Monitoring Research Activity, setting out expectations for NHS Boards to take a more active role in monitoring, supporting and embedding research across their organisations. While the framework is wider than Secure Data Environments, it includes some important messages for TVS SDE partners.
The framework identifies data-driven research as a key characteristic of a research-active organisation, including expectations that:
- The organisation makes data from clinical source systems available to an NHS Secure Data Environment (SDE) to enable access to demographically representative health data in order to enable high-quality, safe research to benefit patients and the public.
- Researchers have easy, timely and safe access to analysis-ready data, including via NHS SDEs, that enables them to plan and deliver research.
For TVS SDE, this is an important opportunity to show how secure, well-governed access to regional health data can unlock better research, stronger partnerships and real benefits for patients and the public.