12 October 2022

Funding for new projects to use pan-London data to improve health outcomes

NHS organisations, academia and the healthcare industry are invited to apply to lead pioneering Improvement Projects that will improve the health of Londoners using the power of data.

The London Health Data Strategy (LHDS) programme has announced that it will support up to ten new innovative and game changing projects in healthcare outcome improvement, planning, clinical research and product research and development.

This is an exciting opportunity to bring together data from across the Capital to drive forward real improvements in health and care for the benefit of Londoners. These new Improvement Projects will build on the work of four trailblazing Pathfinder Projects who, with one million pounds funding, are joining up and using data in the key areas of cancer pathways, asthma, high blood pressure and pre-school immunisation.

The lessons learned from all these projects will shape the policies, infrastructure, governance, data strategies and public engagement of the LHDS programme as it develops a secure pan-London data platform to support improvements in health and care across the Capital.

This opportunity follows major public engagement events held with Londoners who were supportive of using joined up data to support individual care, proactive care, planning and research. The new Improvement Projects will need to ensure that public engagement remains central to their plans.

Chris Streather, NHS London Medical Director, said:

“Our mission is to help make London the healthiest global city using the power of data to improve the health of Londoners. Our Pathfinder Projects are already leading the way in showing how joining up data can lead to improvements in key areas like treatment for cancer or high blood pressure. The Improvement Projects are the next stage in this exciting journey where we will support a range of innovative projects to improve health and care in the Capital.”

Professor Carol Dezateux, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Health Data Science at Queen Mary University and Childhood Immunisation Pathfinder Project Lead, said:

“We are proud to be leading this exciting project to use data to protect all London’s children from avoidable and serious infections. The Pathfinder Project allowed us to expand and share our work with health data in North East London with partners in other London regions to improve uptake of pre-school immunisations across the capital. This was invaluable during the recent Polio Booster Campaign. When children in London needed an urgent additional dose of a polio vaccine, we were able to pivot our childhood immunisation tools, analysis and learning and inform the region-wide response.

“The new Improvement Projects provide more exciting opportunities to shape how we join up data to meet regional challenges and improve the health of all Londoners.”

With a population of around ten million people London has some of the biggest health datasets in the world. However they are not currently being used to their full potential meaning there are untapped opportunities for data to support improved health and care in the Capital.

The LHDS programme was set up by the NHS in London to grasp these opportunities by creating a secure data environment that will provide health and care insights on Londoners, connect research and clinical care and drive collaboration between existing initiatives.

Building on the work of the Pathfinder Projects the new Improvement Projects will be key in continuing to drive this programme forward.

Up to ten Data at Scale Improvement Projects will be supported in this phase of the programme in the fields of healthcare planning, clinical research and product research and development.

Invitations are invited from NHS organisations, academia and the healthcare industry. Funding will be available for the NHS led projects and all successful projects will be expected to cover the NHS administrative costs of providing the data.

NHS led applications for grant funded projects must be submitted by 30 November 2022. NHS led teams can also apply at any time if they don’t need grant funding as can academia and industry led applications.

Read more information about the Improvement Projects here

Detailed guidance on how to apply can be found here

Find the application form here

Read the public recommendations from the latest deliberative event here

Read more about the LHDS programme here