The Yorkshire & Humber SDE brings together various data providers across the region, including Connected Bradford initiative with its health, education, social care data of people across Bradford and Airedale.
Think of secure data environment as a secure digital filing cabinet where all these different bits of anonymised information can be securely accessed from one place. Before, if researchers wanted to study health patterns across the region, they’d have to get permissions from lots of different places to look at their anonymised records and join them up. Now, by connecting different datasets from GPs, hospitals, health and social care organisations and the Department for Education in one secure environment, researchers can access necessary anonymised data easier and quicker for their high-quality research.
Discover Datasets
The Connected Bradford database holds linked health and social data for over 700,000 individuals residing in the Bradford and Airedale region. It is spanning a period of over forty years and covers near real time activity.
It offers an unprecedented range of integrated datasets, including:
- Education Data
- Adult Social Care
- Children’s Social Care
- General Practice Data
- Mental Health Services
- Hospital Data
- Urgent and Emergency Care
What sets these datasets apart from others is their exceptional breadth, depth, and interconnectivity.
Connected Bradford’s datasets are distinctive in their ability to capture a person’s complete journey through various services. It allows to get insights in longitudinal perspective and monitor long-term outcomes across multiple services.
Its rich datasets integration can provide a more holistic view of the factors influencing health, enabling more effective interventions and policymaking like better understanding health conditions and their root causes, population healthcare trends as well as new treatments investigation.
Research powered by Connected Bradford
The power of Connected Bradford database is demonstrated through multiple studies. To find out all latest studies and papers, click here.
- electronic Frailty Index 2 (eFI2)
This project worked with Age UK at Saltaire Medical Practice to help older people at risk of mild frailty. The team used primary care data to identify patients who might benefit from early support. The intervention focused on helping people better understand their health conditions, improve self-care, and make appropriate use of health services. This Bradford-made innovation is now being implemented nationwide, saving lives through better identification and management of frailty. - Linking the Urban Environment and Health: An Innovative Methodology for Measuring Individual-Level Environmental Exposures
This study focuses on quantifying individual-level environmental exposures, such as air quality, greenspace, transportation, and food environments. With the help of Connected Bradford datasets, the researchers use detailed geospatial data and historical patient information to model a person’s local environment and exposure over time. This study provided high-resolution information on the built environment and enabled better evidence-based policymaking and urban planning.
This research study aims to conduct an early phase trial of air cleaning technologies in 30 primary schools in Bradford, UK. The study will compare three arms – a control group and two intervention groups using portable high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter units and germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) devices – to explore the potential of mitigating viral particle transmission and reducing infection risks.
This study explored the potential of using early school performance assessments to identify children at risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Researchers in the Born in Bradford longitudinal cohort analysed data from 13,857 children, linking their Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) scores with subsequent ASD diagnoses.
This study explored the hidden health impacts of air pollution by examining how exposure to air pollutants like NO2 and PM2.5 affects respiratory healthcare visits. Researchers analysed over 124,000 patient visits to general practitioners and accident & emergency services between 2018 and 2021. The research findings highlight the often overlooked and long-lasting health consequences of air pollution, suggesting that its impact on respiratory health may be far more significant than previously understood.
Access Datasets
Connected Bradford datasets are now accessible through the Y&H SDE, which provides a secure and unified “single front door” to access rich NHS healthcare data for research across our region. The Y&H SDE provides a secure platform with:
- Local data governance
- Role-based access control
- Authorised user management
- Fully de-identified data access for approved projects
Our secure data environment provides a comprehensive suite of tools and capabilities:
Infrastructure & Tools
- Protected access through secure virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
Support for multiple programming languages:
- Python
- R
Security:
- Layers of anonymisation processes
- Controlled data handling processes
- Controlled export of the analysis results
Conclusion
The Connected Bradford database unlocks the potential of high-quality healthcare research and is now enhanced through its incorporation into the Y&H SDE.
Driven by Connected Bradford datasets, research studies demonstrate how an integrated, linked healthcare and social data can drive meaningful research and boost broader healthcare improvement. As the SDE Network is continuing to expand and refine, we invite researchers and healthcare professionals to explore the possibilities within the Y&H SDE platform, where Connected Bradford’s comprehensive datasets await to power the next breakthrough in healthcare research.
- Find out available datasets at What data is available? page
- Learn more about Connected Bradford at GitHub