East of England

Sub-National Secure

Data Environment for R&D

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Introduction to the EoE SDE

and SDE network

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April 2025

Magali Ruffier

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The Data Saves Lives strategy was published in 2022, building on recommendations in Goldacre Review. It aims to unlock the full potential of data across the NHS, for the four core purposes of:

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The NHS England Data for R&D programme funded 11 interoperable Regional Secure Data Environments to provided approved researchers access to data within NHS controlled spaces, rather than sharing data directly.

Strategic context of the SDE

Making access to data for research easier, faster and more secure,

boosting the quality and quantity of research, and improving patients' lives

Vision for the East of England SDE:

22

NHS Trusts

Population

of ~7 million

659

GP Practices

3

Medical Schools

6

Integrated Care Systems

11

Local Authorities

4

Innovation Business

& Research Centres

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Home to the largest per capita science cluster outside the US

A regional data infrastructure asset

• Secure cloud platform (AWS)
• Tooling required for analysis
• Keep data safe whilst protecting people’s privacy
• Enabling approved people to access de-identified health & care data for approved projects
• Maximise research opportunities for patients
• Hosted by  Cambridge University Hospitals
• Underpinned by “Five Safes” principles

Where are we now?

Platform

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Conforms to Standard Architecture for Trusted Research Environments (SATRE) reference architecture

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Current features:

• Access via Virtual Desktop Interface
• Linux OS
• Browser (no external internet access)
• Jupiter notebooks
• R & Python
• Libre Office
• Git
• Airlock

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Beta testers onboarded

Data ingest from sites tested

ISO27001 Accreditation

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Governance

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Favourable opinion from:

• NHS Research Ethics Committee (REC) for ethical opinion
• Confidentiality Advisory group (CAG) for Section 251 approval

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Data Access Committee co-designed with public engagement

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Data access register added to website

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Data Access Request forms prepared

Public engagement

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Substantial patient & public involvement to date through a core group of participants and a series of community workshops run by Healthwatch.

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Active social media accounts.

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Engagement with regional Comms leads.

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Public materials developed ready for wider communications roll-out.

SACRO Tools for the Semi-Automatic Checking of Research Outputs

SDE infrastructure can be used to support…�

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Bespoke datasets

Requests for project-specific datasets outside of what is currently available in the SDE, including linkage between NHS & research datasets.

Governance route: SDE and/or other (e.g. own REC approval) as appropriate

NHS organisation-level workspace �NHS providers can have their own workspaces within the SDE to conduct their own analysis or safely collaborate with external parties.

Governance route: Individual provider governance & controllership [not SDE]

Re-use of existing research datasets �House these datasets within the SDE to allow re-use for other projects (subject to required approvals).

Governance route: Existing study/alternative arrangements or SDE

Cohort discovery across multiple providers �Minimum dataset to be harmonised by mapping to OMOP Common Data Model, allowing querying of counts across sites to build a project cohort for a Data Access Request

Governance route: SDE

Pull-through of datasets discovered via cohort browser�OMOP’d and the original datasets can be requested, which are de-identified before being provisioned within researcher workspaces.

Governance route: SDE

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Clinical trial cohort identification �Use the Cohort Browser to return cohort counts that could be eligible for a clinical trial. SDE team cannot identify individuals – they will return the same query to the NHS provider for them to re-run and identify the individual patients for further eligibility screening.

Governance route: SDE [discovery only] and/or other, as appropriate

Confidential

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Transform

OMOP CDM

Cohort Discovery (aggregated counts only)

Selected Cohort

SDE ‘discovery’ environment

[virtual desktop]

Cohort Discovery Tool

Landing zone

Extract

NHS provider organisation

Linkage & De-ID

Transformation of data to the OMOP CDM

to be undertaken by a third-party supplier

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Approved Cohort

HDR UK Innovation Gateway Cohort Discovery Tool (dev)

Third-party suppliers

[STC]

Approved

Declined

SDE Data Access Committee

(DAC)

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Proof of Concept Delivery by June’25

Approved Cohort

Illustrative WIP SDE Network Screen Flow

Users can view search result

Users can create access request for results for non-SDE entries

Users can create feasibility request for their basket of services

Users can browse Case Studies, Help and Information & submit enquiries to the concierge

Users can perform full text search and see search results

Users can view Service detail

Users can view detail of a search result using existing HDG screens (metadata, tools)

Existing Gateway

SDE Network Additions

Users can add to their basket

Users can register for an account using SSO services, and Log-in

Users can request access to cohort discovery

Users can locate cohorts for OMOP’d data sets

SDE

Non-SDE

Cohort discovery links back to landing page

Thank you

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For our website please see:

eoe-securedataenvironment.nhs.uk

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For general queries about the SDE:�eoe-sde@healthinnovationeast.co.uk