Professor Andrew Morris, Director of Health Data Research UK, said:“ As a doctor and researcher, the announcement of a Health Data Research Service is a day many of us have been waiting for. It is a big investment in the future health of the nation.

“ A Health Data Research Service was the main recommendation of the Sudlow Review, which offered a set of solutions to tackle these problems and for which Health Data Research UK provided the secretariat. So I am delighted that within a few months of publication, we are seeing action.”

In November last year, the Sudlow Review provided a landmark review of the barriers and complexities holding back research using the UK’ s health data. Authored by Professor Cathie Sudlow and supported by HDR UK, it included a set of clear-cut recommendations to transform the situation.

Just five months later, the government announced it will establish a national health data service – the central recommendation of the review.

By addressing the longstanding barriers of fragmentation and inefficiency, it could pave the way for faster, more impactful discoveries. It’ s the engine that can power the NHS 10-year plan and life sciences sector plan, building on principles and essential criteria we’ ve already shaped with ABPI.

The study paper was published in Nature Genetics. It was funded by the NIHR Research Professorship and Cancer Research UK and based at the University of Cambridge and NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

The research analysed the full DNA sequence of 4,775 tumours from seven types of cancer. Scientists used data from Genomics England’ s 100,000 Genomes Project to create an algorithm capable of identifying tumours with faults in their DNA that makes them easier to treat.

The algorithm could pave the way for more personalised treatment plans that increase people’ s chances of survival.

Professor of Genomic Medicine and Bioinformatics at the University of Cambridge, NIHR Research Professor and lead author of the study, Professor Serena Nik-Zainal, said:“ Genomic sequencing is now far faster and cheaper than ever before. We are getting closer to the point where getting your tumour sequenced will be as routine as a scan or blood test. To use genomics most effectively in the clinic, we need tools which give us meaningful information about how a person’ s tumour might respond to treatment. This is especially important in cancers where survival is poorer, like lung cancer and brain tumours.

“ Cancers with faulty DNA repair are more likely to be treated successfully. PRRDetect helps us better identify those cancers and, as we sequence more and more cancers routinely in the clinic, it could ultimately help doctors better tailor treatments to individual patients.”

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