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Tuesday 10 September 2024

Data saves lives – from rhetoric to reality

Around 30,000 people are killed or seriously injured on British roads every year.

These are stark and sobering figures. However for Southampton’s Phil Hyde, each number is also a vivid memory.

He has witnessed lives lost in the rain and dark from his work as a doctor with Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance.

He has informed grieving families on tarmac and grass verges about failed attempts to rescue loved ones.

He intimately feels that this intolerable situation must change.

Hope in data

Phil believes that part of the solution lies in data.

“Almost everybody has passed a road traffic collision (RTC) in their lives and worries about those they love being involved,” he explains.

“Those patients flow into our major trauma systems and cost the NHS billions of pounds.

“Having accurate and complete data could provide the information and explanation for significant policy improvement. It could inform a seismic change in care, ideally leading to zero preventable serious injuries or deaths from road traffic collisions in the UK.”

Could such a revolution on the UK’s roads ever be achieved?

Thinking big

Phil’s conviction in the life-changing potential of linked data extends far beyond Britain’s roads.

“We want to use data to improve pre-hospital care delivered to any person in the UK,” he says.

“NHS systems improve by providing a service and then, first, working out if it was useful and, second, applying research questions to care. This all requires data.”

Phil is leading a team of Southampton researchers behind PRANA, the Pre-hospital Research and Audit Network. Prana is a Sanskrit term that translates to ‘life force’.

“There are questions we ask about current care and we can’t answer them,” he says. “Many were thought to be unsolvable. PRANA is now driving us toward the answers.

“We are empowering data in NHS and non-NHS systems to be linked and analysed with the specific purpose of improving healthcare and preventing disease.”

The time is right

The scope of the network is highly ambitious.

It is linking data from ambulances, air ambulances, police, the Department for Transport, and coroners, as well as the many interactions flowing through hospitals. This includes emergency care, intensive care, trauma care and rehabilitation registries.

“Surprisingly, this work of linking different data sources has never been done before,” Phil says.

“It was thought to be impossible but every idea has it’s time. The integrated health leadership from University Hospital Southampton (UHS) and the University of Southampton – and particularly the Wessex Secure Data Environment (SDE) – has been crucial to turn these ideas into reality.”

A research leader’s journey

Phil was among the first UHS staff to enter the trust’s Research Leaders Programme (RLP) in 2022.

He credits the programme for catapulting him forward in his research career and accelerating PRANA toward larger funding bodies.

His work has received over £400,000 from the Road Safety Trust this summer to expand its delivery in the region. The work has also received £30,000 of seed funding from Wessex Health Partners and Wessex Experimental Medicine Network.

The project has been recognised by NHS England and taken on in a core programme advancing Clinical Response to Major Incidents (CRMI).

“The RLP has been transformational for me,” Phil explains. “I have gone from working on this in my own time, and moving forward slowly, to suddenly having dedicated time to go from an idea to a funded concept.”

“It is creating an enormous opportunity to leverage data and create positive change to healthcare and society.”

‘Inspirational people’

Progress has been a team journey.

The project is supported by a significant multi-disciplinary team of data scientists, clinicians, governance experts, engineers, research managers and charities within Southampton, the Wessex region and around the UK.

It requires engagement from a huge number of regional and national colleagues from the police, coroners, road safety partnerships, local council, road safety charities and air ambulance charities, as well as all the other healthcare providers.

“In the RLP, you work with inspired and inspirational people who come from a completely different background and have the same aspirations for human health,” Phil says. “I’m loving it.”

In particular, Phil has collaborated with Southampton professors Chris Kipps and James Batchelor, co-directors of the Wessex SDE.

“It’s impossible on your own,” Phil says. “I can’t speak highly enough of the support I have had.”

“It has been hugely encouraging to work closely with Phil and see him progress through the programme,” James adds. “Together, we can exploit the vast potential of linked data to realise national impact.”

Phil concludes, “Improving healthcare in this way is only possible because UHS believes in supporting clinician researchers and puts resource behind their ideas in the form of the Research Leaders Programme.”

Find out more about the UHS Research Leaders Programme here.