What do we mean by whole population data?
Structured data refers to health information that is captured in a structured way. For example, there is a ‘drop-down’ box that a doctor completes with pre-set information. This would include electronic health records, such as at the GP and hospital.
What are we doing?
We are improving the accessibility of high-quality, linked healthcare datasets at UK population-wide scale for cardiovascular research. This work is driven by the NIHR-BHF CVD-COVID-UK flagship project looking at the relationship between COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease.
This project has resulted in NHS England’s Trusted Research Environment for England. This has linked de-identified health records for 96% of the English population in a secure environment, enhancing privacy and security of data, allowing important research questions to be answered to improve treatment and care of cardiovascular patients.
Areas of work
Find out more about our data-led research.
CVD-COVID-UK / COVID-IMPACT
One of seven National Flagship Projects approved by the NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership, linking population healthcare datasets across the UK to understand the relationship between COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases.
Learn more…
Imaging
Better use of unstructured data: addressing the challenges of accessing, improving and using unstructured data, for example from cardiac and brain imaging, medical free text and electrocardiograms.
Smartphones and Wearables
Exploring how data from apps and wearables, linked to other health datasets, can inform trajectories of cardiovascular health and disease.
Defining Disease
Developing methods to define cardiovascular health and disease in computable form through a collaborative network of expertise that provides a world-leading, open, cardiovascular phenotype library of tools and protocols.
Clinical Trials
Developing platforms for efficient, cost-effective trials, using routine health data to recruit and follow patients with cardiovascular conditions.
Cohorts
Facilitating the linkage of large, ‘omics-rich’ cohorts to electronic health records to better understand the causes of cardiovascular diseases.
Diabetes Data Science Catalyst
This exciting partnership between the BHF Data Science Centre, Diabetes UK and HDR UK aims to develop improvements in our understanding of the link between cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
Stroke Data Science Catalyst
This five-year partnership between the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre, Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), the Stroke Association, and the BHF – will enable approved research teams to use data from real-world settings, including hospitals, GPs and pharmacies, to improve our understanding of stroke risk factors and open the door to better prevention and treatment.