OpenSAFELY
OpenSAFELY is a secure analytics platform, interfacing to NHS patient records and enabling statistical analysis of them by medical researchers. The platform was originally a collaboration between DataLab at the University of Oxford, the EHR group at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and electronic health record software companies.[1] The platform is now developed by the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, part of Oxford University's Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences.[2]
Initially, it has been used to make an analysis of the risk factors associated with deaths from COVID-19 in hospital in the UK.[3] This is significant because the dataset is especially large, covering about 58 million patients.[4] In 2023, the NHS announced that it would expand the use of the OpenSAFELY platform to help drive life-saving advances for other major diseases.[5]
The platform interfaces with a secure database of pseudonymized primary care records, and only aggregated results are viewable by researchers. This allows researchers to access a large dataset necessary for identifying potential risk factors without the risks of exposing personal patient information.[6]
In 2025 the OpenSAFELY project was awarded a package of funding from the Wellcome Trust, this included £7 million to analyse the outcomes of talking therapies across the NHS. A further £10 million was awarded to develop data infrastructure, including investigating "new methods for connecting diverse health datasets and enhanced analytical tools for researchers".[7]
References
- ↑ "OpenSAFELY: secure access to data to deepen our understanding of COVID-19". https://transform.england.nhs.uk/key-tools-and-info/data-saves-lives/improving-care-through-research-and-innovation/opensafely-secure-access-to-data-to-deepen-our-understanding-of-covid-19/.
- ↑ "Major investment to transform mental health treatment research and further develop secure NHS data platform". 2025-02-19. https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/news/researchers-17m-wellcome-award-mental-health-data-research.
- ↑ Goldacre, Ben; Smeeth, Liam; Bhaskaran, Krishnan; Bacon, Seb; Bates, Chris; Morton, Caroline E.; Curtis, Helen J.; Mehrkar, Amir et al. (2020-07-08), "OpenSAFELY: factors associated with COVID-19 death in 17 million patients" (in en), Nature 584 (7821): 430–436, doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2521-4, ISSN 1476-4687, PMID 32640463
- ↑ "The pandemic has spawned a new way to study medical records", The Economist, 14 May 2020, https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/05/14/the-pandemic-has-spawned-a-new-way-to-study-medical-records
- ↑ "NHS England » NHS expands use of secure COVID-19 research platform to help find new treatments for major killer conditions". 17 November 2023. https://www.england.nhs.uk/2023/11/nhs-expands-use-of-secure-covid-19-research-platform-to-help-find-new-treatments-for-major-killer-conditions/.
- ↑ "OpenSAFELY: more proof that tackling the coronavirus pandemic does not require privacy to be compromised". 2020-05-23. https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/opensafely-more-proof-that-tackling-the-coronavirus-pandemic-does-not-require-privacy-to-be-compromised/.
- ↑ Dimitrova, Galya (2025-02-20). "National health data scheme awarded 'transformative' £17m funding". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg5x5x3rq3o.
External links
- OpenSAFELY – official website
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