Infrastructure Initiative:

Wessex Secure Data Environment

The Wessex Secure Data Environment (SDE) project is an NHS-led and owned project, sponsored and supported by Wessex Health Partners

The Wessex SDE will provide an online platform where approved researchers can access secure, privacy-protected health data. This will unlock the potential of NHS patient data to support health and care research, create life-saving new treatments and medicines, and bring wider benefits to patients, society and the NHS.

Wessex SDE is part of a national programme sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England. The national network covers the whole of England and is made up of 11 regional SDEs centres, working individually or together to support research.

The network is being developed in response to the Goldacre Review and the Data Saves Lives strategy and will drive delivery of the recommendations from the Sudlow Review to ‘Unite the UK’s Health Data’.

Locally, the Wessex SDE is led by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) in partnership with the University of Southampton working closely with other NHS and university partners across the region.

Key benefits include:

Shift from data sharing to data access: NHS controls who accesses data, what information they see, their actions with the data, and the results they can use. Researchers will not view confidential patient information.

Better healthcare and public benefits: Accelerating clinical trials, cutting-edge treatments, and innovative diagnostics to improve NHS efficiency and health outcomes here in Wessex.

A more efficient healthcare system: Using research insights to improve care pathways and overall performance of the NHS system, whilst delivering tangible patient benefits such as reduced waiting lists and improved population health.

Economic growth and regional innovation: Establish Wessex as a life sciences innovation hub which attracts talent, businesses, and investment. Unlocking opportunities for Wessex researchers to lead nationally and internationally significant research projects in collaboration with other SDEs.

Patients and the public are central to the design of the Wessex SDE and its governance. This year, we have engaged hundreds of local residents and groups through meetings and workshops.

In particular, the Wessex Public Panel on NHS Data, convened over the summer of 2024, brought together 50 people from Wessex’s diverse communities. This group worked with the SDE Team to co-design the values which will guide the SDE, its research priorities, and made recommendations on the actions the SDE needs to take to build trust.

For more information, please go to the Wessex SDE website