Visit the Discover-NOW website

Discover-NOW is currently hosted by Imperial College Health Partners, and remains an active member of the HDR UK Hub Alliance. Thanks to its success to date, Discover-NOW will be scaled into the London Secure Data Environment thanks to funding from NHS England’s Data for Research and Development programme.

Discover-NOW London SDE is one of the sub-national secure data environments (SNSDEs), a network of SDEs developed by NHS England to support nationwide research into diseases and conditions affecting the population, to enable the development of new treatments, and the analysis of how health and care is delivered to improve patient experiences and outcomes.

Once the London-wide data is linked, Discover-NOW London SDE will be able to provide approved academic and commercial users access to anonymised data for London’s whole population of 10.8 million people. This will create one of the largest data assets in the world and offer unparalleled opportunities for discovery science to improve patient care.

Establishing Discover-NOW as the London SDE is a collaborative endeavour across NHS England (London Region), including health innovation networks Imperial College Health Partners, UCLPartners, and HIN South London.

About Discover-NOW London SDE

  • Since its inception, Discover-NOW has pioneered the use of real-world evidence (RWE) in health research, making it the ideal foundation from which to develop a London-wide secure data environment for research and development. To date, we have supported the approval of almost 300 data access requests, and research informed by Discover-NOW data has translated into over 35 academic publications.

    Discover-NOW is pioneering the use of Real World Evidence in health research. Real World Evidence research is based on health data that is collected in real world settings such as routine appointments and from mobile devices. This data gives a richer insight through allowing researchers to better design and conduct studies about potential treatments and the impact they could have on the health of the population.

    The work of Discover-NOW London SDE  is underpinned by the Five Safes:

    • Safe projects 
    • Safe people 
    • Safe setting 
    • Safe outputs 
    • Safe data 
  • Discover-NOW London SDE enables research through: 

  • Discover-NOW London SDE can only revolutionise the way health information is used to treat and prevent disease in the future with the support and trust of our communities and wider population. Our approach to patient and public involvement and engagement includes: 

    • Empowering individuals to be more involved in research 
    • Involving people with lived experience 
    • Working in partnerships with research charities 
    • Engaging community leaders and champions 
    • Involving our population through deliberation 

    We are committed and are working in partnership with the public, patients and professionals to understand what additional safeguards and controls need to be in place to ensure trusted access to, and use of, depersonalised data.