NHS England to expand GP data sharing platform

Tender for FDP platform also set to be announced imminently

NHS England is set to expand the usage of its OpenSAFELY platform, a tool that enables secure analysis of GP data for research purposes.

Initially used during the pandemic to study anonymised data for identifying new Covid-19 treatments, the platform - developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford - ensures that users do not access patient-identifiable information, and the data remains within the platform.

OpenSAFELY's success during the pandemic has prompted NHS England to seek support from GPs for its expansion into research beyond Covid-19.

Extending the platform is part of the UK government's wider ‘data saves lives' strategy, which also covers the Federated Data Platform (FDP): a project that will enable NHS organisations to bring together operational data currently stored in separate systems.

US tech giant Palantir is understood to be the frontrunner to win the £480m contract to run the FDP. The winner will be announced this week.

Multiple research projects across England

OpenSAFELY has facilitated over 150 research projects across 22 organisations. NHS England believes its expansion could lead to breakthroughs in treating major conditions like cancer, diabetes and asthma; but before widening its scope, NHS England plans to rigorously test the types of research the platform can effectively support.

The platform is designed to keep patient data confidential and secure; de-identified data does not leave it at any stage. Researchers write the code for their analyses without directly accessing patient data. Their queries are then submitted for automatic analysis against patient records inside a secure setting that no researcher ever needs to access. Only anonymised results are released from the platform, following output checks.

Professor Ben Goldacre, director of the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, said: "OpenSAFELY has shown that it's possible to address privacy concerns and also deliver research outputs at scale, in collaboration with our diverse community of analyst users across the country."

OpenSAFELY will be open to new research applicants "as soon as possible" in 2024.