Research using health data during the COVID pandemic has been more visible and impactful than ever – with high profile leadership in SAGE, daily publications in national and international media on direct and indirect impacts of COVID, and a phenomenal range of new and enhanced data assets created.

We have seen the extraordinary pace and creativity from people using health data, and major advances in creation of new datasets, enhancements of datasets, and new publicly available tools. However, the use of these new data assets is still nascent, and there is an opportunity to radically increase the use of data and place the UK at the forefront of the health data science revolution.

On 20 July 2020, Health Data Research UK and Lord Prior, Chairman of NHS England, are convening a discussion between current and future health data science leaders to consider this opportunity and to think about how we use lessons learnt to shape the future of health data science in the UK. The aim is to create a consensus statement that we will publish on our website. This discussion will be recorded and made publicly available after the meeting.

We would like to inform this important discussion by inviting people from our wider community – whether you are a patient, member of the public or a colleague in the NHS, academia, industry or charity – to submit your ideas and suggestions in advance. We will collate this input and share it as a paper to the attendees of the meeting.

UPDATE: The results from the survey were used to inform the roundtable discussion on Monday 20 July 2020. We will soon be publishing a summary of the discussions and the recording of the meeting.