Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation (DRWF), based on Hayling Island, has joined other leading medical research charities across the UK to support a new campaign to raise awareness to the importance of sharing data from medical records with medical researchers.
The campaign coincides with a leaflet drop by NHS England to all 22 million households in England to explain the changes to how data from health records is collected from GP surgeries; these patient records held by the NHS are an invaluable resource for scientists.
With careful controls to protect individuals’ privacy, by removing any personal contact details, researchers are able to use the information from the records to make discoveries that improve the prevention and treatment of disease.
Dr Eleanor Kennedy Research Manager at DRWF explained: “This is a powerful new initiative that showcases the uniqueness of the NHS. Access to patient data like this could accelerate new medicines and treatments getting to market and this, in turn, could have an enormous and lasting impact on the health of the nation.“
DRWF is a major global force in diabetes research; the foundation has funded more than £8.4m of vital diabetes research since it was established in the UK. The charity is currently funding 24 researchers across the country, the DRWF Islet Isolation Facility at the Oxford Centre for Diabetes Endocrinology & Metabolism (OCDEM) at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford as well as contributing to a number of collaborative international funding initiatives.â€
“Currently, the NHS is writing to everyone in England to ensure they're happy for their information to be used in this way and giving them the option to opt out. Everyone needs to make their own choice, but we hope the majority of people will be happy for their data to be used to help researchers find discoveries that can improve and save lives.†Added DRWF CEO Sarah Bone