Chris Whitehouse, a political consultant and expert on medical technology policy and regulation at Whitehouse Communications, highlights a new appointment to boost medical research.
The government has taken a major step to accelerate the discovery of life-saving drugs and devices and to drive investment in the British life sciences sector by appointing Dr Melanie Ivarsson to lead the Health Data Research Service (HRDS).
The HRDS is a new health data research body, which is backed by 600m GBP in funding from the government and Wellcome. The service aims to cut red tape to improve access to health data for approved researchers across the UK.
Dr Melanie Ivasrsson has been appointed as CEO of the project. She brings expertise in healthcare innovation and industry to the role, having led the clinical trials that produced one of the world’s first COVID-19 vaccines at Moderna. She has also held senior roles at pharmaceutical firms Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Takeda.
HRDS is part of the government’s Plan for Change, and will provide a secure, single-point access platform to national-scale health data sets, allowing developers to work faster with NHS data, and giving patients better access to new treatments and technologies. Centralising data access not only accelerates the pace of research but also improves the UK’s competitiveness as a destination for life sciences investment, a key objective in the government’s broader Life Sciences Sector Plan.
The service will be based at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Cambridgeshire, forming part of the UK’s innovation corridor. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have also all agreed in principle to the UK-wide ambition.
Successful delivery of this initiative will require strong patient safeguards, and the government has announced that rigorous security measures such as anonymity and virtual locked rooms will be put in place, to ensure private data is not put at risk.
Commenting on the launch, Dr Zubir Ahmed, Minister for Health Innovation said: “By combining the care of the NHS with the ingenuity of our world-leading scientists, our health service can truly become the envy of the world once again”.
The Author used AI in preparing this article. Comments upon or questions about this article can be addressed to chris.whitehouse@whitehousecomms.com.
Related
link