PATHWAY is a Research Data Hub that provides safe access to clinicians, analysts and researchers who are committed to using UHB’s health data to improve patient care and the population’s health and well-being.

Our focus is supporting internal research and innovation at UHB. PATHWAY is designed to provide health data for a range of analyses, with each project required to show a clear pathway to patient and public benefit.

PIONEER is improving patient care by making routinely collected acute health data available to doctors, researchers and academics, under licence, so that the data can be used ethically and with robust governance to improve treatment choices and identify new ways to deliver clinical care.

Acute care is the provision of unplanned medical care, including out-of-hours primary care, ambulance assessment, emergency medicine, and surgery and intensive care. Demand for acute health services are currently unsustainable for our national healthcare resource. Despite this, there has been less innovation in acute care than in many others health sectors, in part due to siloed information about patients with acute illnesses.

PIONEER collects and connects health data from health care organisations caring for adults and children, with a particular focus on unplanned or emergency care. This data is sourced from community health teams, ambulance services, and hospitals across the UK.

The West Midlands Secure Data Environment (WMSDE) is a trusted, NHS-led platform that enables the safe, secure and ethical use of health and care data for research and innovation.

Hosted by UHB, the WMSDE provides a secure, cloud-based environment where approved researchers can access high-quality, de-identified data — ensuring that data remains under NHS control at all times.

As a regional service, the WMSDE brings together NHS organisations, academic institutions, and system partners from across the West Midlands to support collaborative data research that reflects the health needs and diversity of the region’s population. It enables a wide range of research activity, from improving early diagnosis and tackling health inequalities to enhancing service delivery and informing population health policy.

By improving access to data in a safe and controlled way, the WMSDE delivers benefits for researchers, the NHS, and—most importantly—patients. It supports faster, more inclusive research, reduces duplication, and enables more effective, evidence-based care. The WMSDE also forms part of a national network of Secure Data Environments, helping to shape a consistent, privacy-preserving approach to health data use across the UK.

Health Data Research Department Services
UHB provides comprehensive data research services designed to support both academic institutions and commercial organisations in unlocking the full potential of health data.

The AI & Digital Health Group, led by Professor Alastair Denniston, is a collaborative research and policy group focused on the safe, effective, and equitable evaluation, regulation and implementation of AI health technologies. Operating across UHB and the University of Birmingham, their mission is to shape how AI technologies are integrated into healthcare systems locally, nationally and globally.

Examples of impact from the AI & Digital Health Group include:

• Improving scientific standards – developing and contributing to internationally adopted reporting guidelines for studies of AI health technologies (SPIRIT-AI, CONSORT-AI, TRIPOD+AI, STARD-AI, and DECIDE-AI).
• Setting the bar for evidence requirements – building evidence standards for digital health technologies for NICE (DHT-ESF), in collaboration with Imperial College London and the Alan Turing Institute; and for the UK Diabetic Eye Screening Programme with the UK National Screening Committee.
• Enhancing safety – developing tools for assessing safety of AI-enabled medical devices at local, national and international level; working with regulators to explore how intelligence can be more readily shared.
• Improving equity – highlighting the role of health data poverty as a cause of worsening inequity in the AI era, tackling bias in health datasets through STANDING Together, and supporting the use of AI in low resource settings.
• Awarded The Centre of Excellence for Regulatory Science & Innovation in AI & Digital Health, working directly with the UK health regulators to identify and address current and future needs and opportunities in the regulation of AI & Digital Healthcare products and services.
• Supported by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR), we lead the UK’s Incubator for AI and Digital Healthcare, bringing together the community of innovators, health professionals, patients, regulators and commissioners who are committed to working together to unlock the potential benefits of AI and digital healthcare for the health and wealth of the UK.

The group works in collaboration with academic, industry and policy institutions around the world, bringing diverse and interdisciplinary teams together to build best practices that can be translated internationally.

UHB has obtained the necessary ethical approvals for all its Research Data Hubs and Secure Data Environments from the Research Ethics Committee (REC) and Health Research Authority (HRA). These approvals ensure that all research activities conducted within UHB’s health data research department adhere to the highest ethical and regulatory standards, safeguarding patient confidentiality and data integrity.

To maintain robust oversight and governance of all UHB Health Data Hubs, dedicated oversight committees and governance processes have been established for each hub.

Our Data Trust Committees (DTC) play a crucial role in monitoring, reviewing, and evaluating all data access requests, ensuring compliance with ethical guidelines, legal frameworks, and institutional policies. This structured governance approach helps to uphold transparency, accountability, and responsible data usage in medical and health research.

The Five Safes framework is a set of principles designed to ensure safe and secure access to data for researchers.

Originally developed by the Office for National Statistics and other data providers in the 2010s, the framework enables data providers to deliver controlled access to data.

1. Safe People -who is going to be accessing the data?
2. Safe Projects – what is the purpose of accessing the data?
3. Safe Data – researchers have a clear legal basis for accessing the data and do not inadvertently learn something about the data subjects during their analysis, minimising the risks of re-identification
4. Safe Settings – what environment will the user be accessing the data in
5. Safe Outputs – ensure that all research outputs cannot be used to identify data subjects, they typically include ‘descriptive statistics’ that have been sufficiently aggregated

We are committed to meaningful patient and public involvement in how health and care data is used for research. This includes ensuring that data access requests are reviewed not only for their scientific merit, but also with consideration of public values, expectations, and concerns.

We are currently expanding our Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) groups to help guide our work, shape our decision-making processes, and ensure transparency and accountability around data use.

If you’re interested in finding out more or getting involved, we would love to hear from you. Visit: I’m a Patient – University Hospitals Birmingham

Within RD&I Health Data Research Department we have technical expertise in Data curation, Applications and Infrastructure. This includes:

• Local Infrastructure hosted by UHB data Centre, storage of Data, Licences for Software
• Cloud Infrastructure
• Information Security (ISO27001)
• Data Developers and Technicians who support with collating and curating data sets for a range of services; UHB Data Hubs and West Midlands Secure Data Environment
• Application Developers & Technicians

Our technical platforms, provide cloud-based data access built to the latest standards. It is highly secure, ISO27001 accredited, proactively monitored, and auditable. It is operated by an experienced technical workforce and strongly aligned with information governance and legal frameworks. The platform curates multi-modal healthcare data assets, allowing authorised data researchers to remotely access the information they need within a single, NHS-controlled space.

Our in-house Statistics Team is here to help provide statistically robust answers to clinical questions by analysing, interpreting and presenting data. We will help UHB staff to identify areas for improvement of patient care and staff morale, and help find where efficiencies can be made.

We are a small team of knowledgeable statisticians with over 30 years of collective experience working within the NHS. Since 2010, we have provided statistical support for over 400 peer-reviewed journal articles, internal reports, and supported award-winning conference presentations and posters. We provide support for clinical audits, service evaluations and research programmes.

Our services include:

• Advice and guidance
• Predictive modelling
• Development of clinical risk scores
• Clinical audit & outcomes analysis
• Research design & statistical consultancy
• Support writing Statistical Analysis Plans, manuscripts, grant applications and more

Statistical support may be provided for external projects on a case-by-case basis.

Please email STAAR@uhb.nhs.uk to see how we can help you.