Open Data and E-Health

Today’s announcement is less ambitious with regard to patient access, but more ambitious about opening up information to industry. The Open Data measures published on the Cabinet Office website say that from September 2012, healthcare datasets from GP practices will be linked with hospital data to enable healthcare impacts to be tracked across the entire health service. The secure data linkage service - set up by the Health and Social Care Information Centre - will allow users to track the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of things like drugs and procedures and is expected to put the UK in a “prime position for research investment.” The Department of Health said these linked data sets would provide the health service, pharmaceutical industry, academics and other professionals with “unequalled levels of information about the journeys of patients through the care system and the outcomes of different treatments.” The document also repeats earlier announcements that the government will publish practice-level prescribing data by September 2012 and additional health and social care datasets by September 2013. This will include GP reference data, Care Quality Commission Provider Profile Reports and Choose and Book usage at GP practice level. Via Rebecca Todd

• Further detail on Open Data measures announced in the Autumn Statement 2011 (pdf, 374kb)
• Further detail on Open Data measures announced in the Autumn Statement 2011 (word)