Title: HDR UK Site Project - Improving Public Health
Funder: Medical Research Council

Abstract: This work is funded by the UKRI Medical Research Council, UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UKRI Economic and Social Research Council, National Institute for Health Research (England), Chief Scientist Office (Scottish Government), Health and Care Research Wales, Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland), British Heart Foundation and Wellcome Improving Public Health: We will support opportunities to improve public health, and address health inequalities across the UK using health data science. Led by Professor Ronan Lyons, HDR UK Wales/NI Our aim To develop the capability to identify the things that cause ill-health in people, as well as the factors that result in improved health – no matter where they live or what their socioeconomic background – across the whole population of the UK. The challenge Factors that cause poor health are diverse and complex: they can be unexpected, long term or short term, as well as local, national or global, and can interlink, adding to the complexity. We do not always have the right data at our fingertips to be able to tell what kind of effect a behaviour, event or intervention has had – or could have – on a population’s health. However in many cases, the data we need exists already – health data is collected in GP surgeries and hospitals across the UK every day – the challenge is to create the right infrastructure to link it all together in innovative ways and do the right analyses, to better the health of the whole nation. Our approach We aim to collect and link the right information, to track a greater variety of factors that affect people’s health, over the whole of their lifetime, and for as many people as possible. That is the key to great public health research that changes lives for the better by improving prevention and early intervention to treat disease. We will enable data science to transform public health research Through linking to data beyond health care, for example, to other government sectors, organisations, and data on environments that influence health. The people that work in these areas may not usually regard the data they produce as having a major bearing on public health, but in fact decisions made in education, housing, technology, engineering, law, fiscal policy, environmental science, planning, history and behavioural sciences all impact our health. Through linking beyond the individual, we will better evaluate risk factors, outcomes and potential for interventions that target related individuals or groups, for example, parents and children/siblings, households, neighbourhoods and even whole countries. By enabling whole country comparisons, we will inform national policy development for the UK, improving health of all. Our output Public health is an area that has the potential to be revolutionised by data science. Information about people’s health will be linked with non-health data in a powerful way to draw conclusions about public health that we can act on to make whole populations healthier.


Research activity codes: 2.2 FACTORS RELATING TO PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT;2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS;2.5 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGIES (AETIOLOGY);2.6 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (AETIOLOGY)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE