University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is to work in partnership with University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust to use data collected in acute care settings to improve patient care.

The work will mean UCLH becomes a key partner in a Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) programme called PIONEER, the Health Data Research Hub for Acute Care, led by UHB. PIONEER is an ethically approved research partnership that collects and curates patient data from acute care across the health economy, including primary, secondary, social care, and ambulance service to support research.

The anonymised database and partnership provides valuable insights to enable innovative healthcare organisations to develop, test and deliver advances in acute clinical care and patient and public representatives are at the heart of the work undertaken by PIONEER with robust processes in place to safeguard patient data.

The addition of UCLH to the partnership will allow HDR UK PIONEER to further scale its patient dataset, accelerate innovation within acute care to support the development of new insights which provide better care for the patients we serve.

Bryan Williams, UCLH Director of Research and front-line physician, said: “This partnership between major institutions in London and Birmingham builds on the legacy of our strong partnership working throughout the Covid pandemic. Acute medical care is hugely valued by patients and a key areas of NHS activity but has received too little research attention. We want to fix that and this partnership with our colleagues in Birmingham will transform our ability to gain rapid and novel insights, to further improve care and patient outcomes in acute medical settings across the NHS. It is also important that patients and the public are at the centre of this partnership, guiding our safe use of data, through our Data Trust Committee.”