This week, Understanding Patient Data has written to the newly appointed ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care (here) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (here).
We congratulate them on their new appointments and highlight the role health data plays in achieving their goals relating to the NHS, the life sciences industry and research. We note that there have been some recent news stories about the government’s willingness to make it easier for companies to access NHS data, which is an important part of our health system, but have advised caution in how this is done, so that it maintains and builds public trust.
We look forward to working with the new Government going forwards to ensure health data is used in a trustworthy way to improve health outcomes.