Government Data Strategy to improve outcomes

In June, the Government launched a new data strategy for health and social care which will, it hopes, help improve outcomes for millions of patients. The strategy is titled Data Saves Lives: Reshaping Health and Social Care with Data, and focuses on seven broad commitments:

• Improving trust in the health and care systems’ use of data
• Giving health and care professionals the information they need to provide the best care
• Improving data for adult social care
• Supporting local decision makers with data
• Empowering researchers with the data they need to develop life-changing treatments and diagnostics
• Working with partners to develop innovations that improve health and care
• Developing the right technical infrastructure

Launching the strategy at London Tech Week’s HealthTech Summit, former Secretary for Health & Social Care Sajid Javid said that the Government would, “work with the public, including people working in health and care, to develop a new pact on data, which will set out how we will use health and care data, and what the public has the right to expect. This will include the ability to opt out of sharing data. Because although we know that most people want their data to be used for good, we will make the opt-out system simpler and more transparent.” He went on to say that social care lags behind the NHS when it comes to digital transformation, something which he aimed to change.