There are a number of vitally needed healthcare improvements that are developed by different organisations working together, for example to:
improve health services and patient care plans,
develop new treatments and medical devices,
develop new algorithms and software applications
all to help clinicians and patients to manage disease better with improved IT solutions
Examples of how research can improve care include:
a new drug to help tackle a cancer that is difficult to treat, developed by a pharmaceutical company
an infusion pump that delivers a controlled dose of medication to somebody on a continuous basis while they are at work or at home, developed by a medical device manufacturer
a smart monitoring system that gives the patient an alert on their mobile phone when a blood measurement needs urgent attention, developed by a health software company
a better way to support patients with advanced dementia in their home, pioneered by a social services organisation.
These are the kinds of healthcare research that society wants to prioritise.
Different organisations are involved in the development of these improvements. Some of these organisations are public and some commercial and sometimes both work together. They all have to adopt good practices in protecting data privacy when they conduct research.
The kinds of organisation that conduct research
We are growing a collection of case studies that report on examples of health data use by these different organisations. Only a few examples are present as yet, but keep a watch on our case study collection as it expands.