Centres put health records at heart of UK research  

A consortium of 10 UK government and charity funders, led by the Medical Research Council (MRC), has made a historic £19 million investment to establish four e-health research Centres of Excellence in London, Manchester, Dundee and Swansea. The funding awards were announced at the British Business Embassy’s life sciences recent summit at Lancaster House by the Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts. The Centres will open in late 2012 and will harness the wealth of UK electronic health records to improve patient care and public health.

The Centres will undertake research that links e-health records with other forms of research and routinely collected data, to identify more effective treatments, improve drug safety, assess risks to public health and study the causes of diseases and disability.

Researchers will make use of patient data sets available through the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, a £60 million service recently announced by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and the National Institute for Health Research. The public and charitable funding for these Centres builds on this important commitment from the Government and on similar bodies that link patient records in Scotland and Wales.

Public understanding of the importance of using health data for research is crucial to advancing drug discovery and improving patient care. The new Centres will play an active role in engaging with the public to promote better understanding of the benefits of e-health records research. The Centres will also act as a vital point of contact for industry, the NHS and policy makers as well offering career development and training opportunities to increase the UK’s capacity and capability in research using health records.

Professor Sir John Savill, chief executive of the MRC, says: ”This is a watershed moment for data research and for the Medical Research Council which I believe will deliver the benefits of e-health research, improving patient care over the coming years. The way in which the partner organisations have come together to invest in e-health underpins its importance and will help establish the UK as a world leader in this field.”