[London, UK] Patient care could be completely transformed if the NHS leverages its data resource, Health Minister Lord O’Shaughnessy said today at the Spectator Health Summit.
“The penny has dropped and it’s dropped very hard about the potential that can come from mobilising this NHS data set that we have,” the minister told delegates.
This ‘unique, longitudinal, comprehensive’ data set could improve direct care for patients, help the NHS plan differently and transform the life sciences sector, Lord O’Shaughnessy added.
To deliver this vision, NHS England and the Local Government Association will select five regions developing advanced shared health and care records to become part of a new exemplar scheme that will see them receive up to £7.5m to be matched locally.
“We have to move speedily, but cautiously, and we absolutely have to bring the public with us.”
Three of these exemplars will become Digital Innovation Hubs, described by the minister as a ‘research portal’ that will provide an opportunity to use data, with appropriate safeguards in place, to test new treatments, develop algorithms and identify trends in disease development and control, among others. A more detailed plan is expected to be released before the end of the year.
This could bring ‘huge economic value’, Lord O’Shaughnessy explained, although the government is still said to be grappling with the ‘challenging and unusual decision’ on how to capture the commercial value of the data set.
However, the minister explained that it is 'not enough to have the data’, pointing to recent AI and machine learning advancements in healthcare: “That is where we are on the cusp of extraordinary developments.”
Lord O’Shaughnessy added:
“We now have genomic data, we know if there are genetic reasons why people develop diseases (…) and this is all targeting towards much more personalised medicine, instead of putting people through courses of treatment, when 50% of them might work, 50% of them might not work, so that we have much better accuracy, so that we’re not putting people, particularly cancer patients, through toxic treatments that are not going to help them.
“That would be an extraordinary gift to mankind.”
In his speech, the minister also acknowledged the increasing public concern around data security and cyber threats, adding:
“We have to move speedily, but cautiously, and we absolutely have to bring the public with us.”
