AIMES are delighted to announce our participation in the aforementioned DARE UK (Data and Analytics Research Environments UK) Sprint Exemplar Project, ‘FAIR-TREATMENT’. This builds upon the success of AIMES’ participation in a separate programme of HDR UK Sprint Exemplars and Gut Reaction and DATAMIND Data hubs.

Senior Business Development Manager Antony Shimmin said:

Our TRE solution is widely used within the Health Data Research Community and now to see it utilised as part of the DARE UK remit is exciting as we contribute to the national discussion about how TREs are managed, federated and accredited.

Background

Reportedly, 39.2% of 6 to 16 year olds have experienced deterioration in mental health since 2017; a rate which has increased year-on-year over the last decade. This has led to the stretching of services and delays in intervention, leaving young people to suffer with longer lasting/more severe problems.

It is possible to identify patients requiring professional help proactively by spotting patterns in the data (similarly to the AVERT project which AIMES has also assisted in). However, this proves challenging as the data required for this is siloed in different places (e.g., health, education, social care records) and falls under the remit of different research councils (including MRC and ESRC).

To address this challenge, this DARE UK-funded sprint exemplar project will use synthetic data to:

1. Technology: Combine several technologies to demonstrate the possibility of analysing data across Trusted Research Environments (TREs) in different places whilst preserving individual privacy.
2. Governance: Consult with patients, the public, organisations contributing data, and legal/ethics experts to agree the best way to oversee the use of young people’s data, ensuring it is managed safely and fairly.

About FAIR TREATMENT

Led by Dr. Anna Moore (University of Cambridge), the FAIR TREATMENT (Federated Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Research across Trusted Research Environments for Child and Adolescent Mental Health) project will build upon the work of Timely project — a three year project partially-funded by the MRC and The Alan Turing Institute. The funding will enable the utilisation of cutting edge technologies CRATE, BitFount and Intermine, to facilitate interoperability between three TREs (at the University of Cambridge, University of Birmingham, and the University of Essex); as well as the production of a new governance framework and PPI practices.

About DARE UK

DARE UK (Data and Analytics Research Environments UK) aims to design and deliver a national data research infrastructure that is joined up, demonstrates trustworthiness and supports research at scale for public benefit.

The sprint exemplar programme supporting FAIR TREATMENT aims to provide funding to ambitious research projects who are working to develop and demonstrate technical capability and governance frameworks to further the progress towards this goal.

Learn more about the sprint exemplar programme here.