Hospital trust enlists SAS for big data-led research push

health

Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust has chosen SAS' business analytics tools to overhaul the way it manages and delivers research.

The Trust claims using SAS' in-memory big data visualisation offering, SAS Visual Analytics, will provide a single view of all patient data, which will ultimately deliver better clinical outcomes.

Evidence-based decisions that draw on all the available data are essential to achieving better services.

SAS has hailed the partnerships as "groundbreaking", as this is the first time the company has worked with a UK hospital trust.

Cliff Morgan, clinical lead for IT at the Trust, added: "Incorporating analytics into our research trials can deliver new insights in key areas, such as the factors that lie behind the onset of heart and lung disease, which can then inform critical decisions about how we treat our patients."

The Trust will begin by using Visual Analytics to gain insights into research problems and identifying how they can be further explored, before moving some of its operational reporting onto the platform.

In the longer term, it will be used as a collaborative system by clinicians and management to share insight across the business of the hospital, the organisations said.

Joanna Smith, CIO of Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We have access to a wealth of information which we must capitalise on so we can deliver services better suited to the individual needs of each patient. Evidence-based decisions that draw on all the available data are essential to achieving this.

"This project reflects our strategy of partnership and collaboration with other organisations, via a technical platform, so we can easily share information with partners, community care organisations and patients," Smith added.

Jane McCallion
Deputy Editor

Jane McCallion is ITPro's deputy editor, specializing in cloud computing, cyber security, data centers and enterprise IT infrastructure. Before becoming Deputy Editor, she held the role of Features Editor, managing a pool of freelance and internal writers, while continuing to specialise in enterprise IT infrastructure, and business strategy.

Prior to joining ITPro, Jane was a freelance business journalist writing as both Jane McCallion and Jane Bordenave for titles such as European CEO, World Finance, and Business Excellence Magazine.