The South West Secure Data Environment (SDE) facilitates safe access to routinely collected NHS health and care data.
With a population of over five million people, the South West SDE has the power to unlock the full potential of our regional data to enable new and ground breaking research.
The SDE enables researchers to access and analyse de-identified, research-ready, novel and unique health and care datasets whilst maximising privacy and security.
Our datasets come from across health and care. They include primary care, secondary care, community services, mental health, social care, genomics, prescribing, emergency services, or the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector.
Potential uses of the SDE includes:
Real world studies: safety, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness
Translational research: academic discovery and implementation of discovery into practice
Epidemiological studies: large cohorts for population health research
Health systems research: evaluation of systems or processes, including operation and applied research
Clinical trials: feasibility, recruitment and follow-up
AI and algorithm development: testing, training and validation
What data can I access?
We work with you to understand your project and provide data to fit your requirements from our partners across the South West. We facilitate access to curated datasets from the following care settings and a range of modalities:
Primary care
Secondary care
Community care
Voluntary, community and social enterprise sector
In addition to research-ready datasets, we work with researchers to develop bespoke datasets that are not already available.
As part of our transparency commitment, all research projects that use the Secure Data Environment are listed on our Data Use Register.
There is more information about how data is protected on our data page.
The South West SDE operates a standardised research project lifecycle, providing a consistent, transparent, and governed route for projects from initial enquiry through to delivery and closure.
We offer the following three services.
Platform as a Service: a highly secure research environment with scalable compute and storage capability, a suite of analytical tools and technical support. Provided as standard along with Data as a Service, or as a standalone option for ‘bring your own data’ projects.
Data as a Service: curation and linkage of datasets to fulfil the needs of a specific research project. Modalities include structured activity information as well as multi-modal imaging and pathology data.
Consultancy as a Service: Research support and advisory services from subject matter experts, including information governance, study design and development, and clinical/health provider engagement.
If you have a research project idea and would like to develop a costed quote with us, please complete our enquiry form.
We accept enquiries from research projects at different stages of development and encourage applicants to get in touch with us early. Early engagement is particularly important when linking to existing research data, as additional ethical approval or modifications may be required.
Quotes for the costs associated with accessing data through South West SDE will be based on the project scope.
If you would like more general information about how the South West SDE could support your research, please get in touch.
