Background
The 10 Year Health Plan sets out how the government will reinvent the NHS through 3 radical shifts.
While Digital is identified as a shift in its own right (Analogue to Digital), it will play a key part in delivering all three shifts, through the use of telehealth solutions to support hospital to community and Population Health solutions and the NHS Federated Data Platform to support sickness prevention. As a hub, we are linked into these initiatives and are supporting the region with procurements that underpin this.
Under the sickness to prevention shift, we are continuing to support Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) and Health Innovation East (HIE), with the ongoing procurement activities related to the East of England Secure Data Environment (EOE SDE). Our previous case study detailed the procurement process undertaken for a build partner to develop and stand up the Target Architecture (TA) for the East of England Secure Data Environment Platform.
We have since supported the procurement of the next phase for the EOE SDE – a data harmonisation, cohort discovery, de-identification, and linkage solution Proof of Concept and MVP.
The project
The project brief was procurement of a solution which supports a federated approach to data harmonisation, cohort discovery and de-identification and linkage for the East of England Secure Data Environment.
Requirement
The solution is required to:
• Operate on subsets of data from NHS data providers
• Be designed with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Five Safes principle firmly at its core
• Promote interoperability, scalability and integration with NHS data provider systems
• Provide advanced yet user-friendly tooling to support research and innovation.
The primary needs the Proof of Concept (POC) and Minimal Viable Product (MVP) will need to fulfil are:
• Data Harmonisation: Electronic Patient Record (EPR) and other data from NHS data provider organisations will be mapped to the OMOP common data model and vocabulary to provide researchers with a shared language when using these data.
• Cohort discovery: To support researchers in exploring whether the East of England NHS data providers have enough patients to meet their research requirements.
• De-identification and linkage: To remove and/or minimise personally identifiable information in the selected/approved cohorts being surfaced on EOE-SDE to meet information governance rules and guidelines and provision harmonised data with OMOP schema, original records and transformation scripts within a researcher’s Project Research Environment (PRE) on the SDE.
Procurement
EOECPH’s Digital category, led by Procurement Specialist Hanna Chipchase, supported CUH and HIE with every step of the process, including:
• Undertaking route-to-market appraisals and selecting Crown Commercial Service’s Digital Outcomes Framework as the preferred route.
• Coordinating and engaging with a broad stakeholder group across multiple organisations.
• Drafting tender documentation and managing supplier clarifications.
• Supporting evaluation sessions, moderation, and contract negotiations.
The Outcome
This work required balancing a complex set of technical requirements, coordination of a wide stakeholder group, and tight timescales, ensuring the programme remained on track to meet national deadlines.
Phase 2 has successfully secured a solution and delivery partner for data harmonisation, cohort discovery and de-identification capabilities, ensuring that the East of England can build on the foundations set in Phase 1. The procurement outcome:
• Selected a supplier who demonstrated technical capability, value for money, and a collaborative approach.
• Delivered assurance that NHS data will remain safe and confidential while enabling vital health and care research.
• Solution within budget and ability to implement within required timescales.
The Impact
This marks an important step in making NHS data more accessible and usable in a secure way for research purposes, supporting both local and national research initiatives and improving people’s health.
Learn about SDE Phase 1 here