A collaboration between Greater Manchester and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) that seeks to improve the health of the local population has been expanded for a further three years.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been agreed between NICE, Health Innovation Manchester and The University of Manchester outlining a shared commitment to boosting health through research, informing health policy and practice, and developing/evaluating health technologies.
The parties have highlighted the Data Lab as a key project under the partnership, which will explore how routinely collected information – including anonymised data derived from patient records – might be used to evaluate the effectiveness of medicines, new technologies and interventions in the development of NICE guidance.
“Building on the strong progress previously made in teaching and educational activities, we welcome increased research collaboration across many areas of mutual interest, including the Data Lab project,” said NICE chief executive Sir Andrew Dillon, commenting on the move.
Greater Manchester recently announced that it will receive £7.5 million from NHS England to become a Local Health and Care Record Exemplar (LHCRE) – tasked with establishing an integrated health and care record across a large population.
Under the move, health and social care IT systems across all 10 boroughs will be connected so they can share information more easily “and allow professionals to make better decisions based on the most up to date information”.
“Being able to use data for research purposes is vital so that we can provide modern day healthcare that radically improves the health and wellbeing of our citizens. Having a shared care record through the LHCRE programme will greatly enhance our ability to conduct world-leading research here in Greater Manchester, providing a richer and more accurate data pool,” noted Ben Bridgewater, chief executive of Health Innovation Manchester.
“The Data Lab will be a key part of Greater Manchester’s digital innovation offer, where we will use data, insights and engagement to transform services and provide better care to our citizens.”
