The West Midlands Secure Data Environment (West Midlands SDE) will bring together people’s health and care information (data) from across the whole region, keeping it safely within the NHS. Having such a large amount of knowledge will help researchers learn more about the health conditions that affect lots of us – and the less common ones suffered by just a few.
Working with the NHS, researchers will also be able to discover ways to help people living in areas of the West Midlands where health is poorer, and lives are shorter. The West Midlands SDE will make this possible thanks to the large amount of useful information researchers will be able to study. Having a much better picture of the health of people in our region will mean researchers will be able to find new medicines and treatments, while reducing the side effects of those we already have.
We’ll also see new ways of working that will be better for our care. People who plan our health and care services will be able to use the SDE to learn if those services are still right for people living in our local communities. Having that understanding will show them what might need to change, and how.
We need to know how you feel about sharing your health information to be stored in the West Midlands SDE. Please take a few minutes to tell us your views by clicking on the link below and completing the questionnaire. Your feedback will inform the future of the West Midlands SDE:
https://nhs.welcomesyourfeedback.net/akg2uk
You may be interested in becoming more involved. Along with other patients and members of the public, you can be at the centre of decision making about access to healthcare data for research projects.
Join the West Midlands Secure Data Environment Data Trust Committee and help save lives. Find out more by visiting:
https://nhs.welcomesyourfeedback.net/s/yhto5a
We have a number of different materials that explain the SDE and people’s options if they do not want their health data to be used for research. They are:
- poster
- leaflet
- opt-out leaflet
- easy read
- introductory presentation
- videos
- animation
- newsletter/website article.
Most of these materials can be found on our website resources pages and are available for you to download and use. We have also attached a newsletter/website article that is not on our website resource pages.
