US And UK Share Health Data Via Cloud

'Our goal is to take data that resides in disparate systems and make the necessary connections'

About half a century after epidemiology studies in Massachusetts and the United Kingdom helped build the world’s understanding of cardiovascular disease and health risks, public health and population data is being opened up by the U.S. and joining international datasets.

As part of the Obama Administration’s Big Data Research and Development Initiative, federal health agencies are contributing five-years worth of public datasets to a cloud-based research platform being used by life sciences researchers at universities and pharmaceutical companies to share population data along with other medical and biological data.

The cloud, hosted by the U.K.-based BT and using software of the Washington-based MedRed, currently hosts deidentified population data from the National Health Services, covering England, Scotland and Wales, with data on demographics, income levels, disease and physician encounters, acute care, medication history, and certain outcomes.