Secure Data Environments (SDEs) are online platforms for analysing health and social care data for research. They aim to improve the safety of the use of data in research.
NHS England is supporting regions to set up their own local SDEs – ours is called the South West SDE. It covers:
- Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire
- Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
- Devon
- Gloucestershire
- Somerset
- Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire
- The South Western Ambulance Service area which also includes Dorset
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Bristol Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) is involved in developing the SDE through two projects: one to support data access in partner organisations, and the other to develop and test an early version of the SDE.
Alongside the Bristol BRC, partners from across the region include:
- NHS organisations: hospital trusts, mental health trusts and GP surgeries, represented by Integrated Care Boards
- Local authorities
- Our local universities
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) and other Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs)
- Health Innovation Networks
- NHS England – South West
Three Digital Critical Friends – members of the public trained in digital and data approaches in healthcare – also sit on the South West SDE management and leadership board. They help ensure it is fit for purpose and is in the public interest.
Hosted by NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (BNSSG ICB), the South West SDE is co-led by the partners who together are developing the South West SDE and rolling it out across the region.
More about SDEs
SDEs give approved researchers secure access to routinely collected NHS and local authority data. Access is only allowed with the permission of these organisations.
Data in SDEs can include things like:
- Illnesses and conditions
- Treatment and care
- Medical imaging such as X-rays
- Test results
- Medicines and allergies
- Hospital appointments and admissions
- Social care activity
Identifiable information will be depersonalised. Identifying personal information is replaced with ‘dummy’ information before a researcher accesses it. This includes names, addresses or NHS numbers.
Results from analyses of SDE data are independently checked. This protects privacy and ensures results don’t contain information that could be used to identify people.
This SDE approach means data isn’t sent or used for any purpose other than the approved research. This approach has already been tested for several years. SDEs take it to a larger, regional scale.
The benefits of the SDE approach include:
- Security and peace of mind. SDEs are developed to the highest security standards. Only approved researchers, working on pre-approved projects, will be able to access the data.
- Speeding up the research process. The SDE will make data-sharing processes more efficient. Researchers will be able to access data in one place. They won’t have to ask lots of organisations for permission or set up separate data sharing agreements. This will speed up research, bringing new treatments and approaches into practice more quickly.
- Tackling health and care inequalities. SDEs pool routinely collected data from GPs and other health and care services. This means that information for most of the population will be included. This in turn means that researchers can study needs and outcomes for groups of people historically traditionally excluded from research.
- Enabling more researchers to help solve problems in health and social care. Through improving support, processes and technology, more research can be undertaken. Examples include understanding demand for emergency or social care, or it might be on the effectiveness of treatments or developing new clinical risk scores.
Eventually, regional SDEs will link together as part of a national network. This will allow research across regional boundaries or the whole country. Each local data controller will still have control of where data is used.