DataLoch is a data service that has been developed in partnership by the University of Edinburgh, NHS Boards and Local Authorities in South-East Scotland. The service is funded under a ten-year Data-Driven Innovation programme.

Currently, the DataLoch service focusses on NHS Lothian, which covers a population of 900,000 people and includes over 100 general practices and three acute hospital sites that share a common electronic hospital record system. In the near future, DataLoch will be extended to further NHS Boards and Local Authorities in the region.

Through our service, the DataLoch team aims to improve decision-making, research and support for colleagues on the front line. We do this by:

  • bringing together health and social care data for the South-East Scotland region;
  • working with experts in health and social care to understand and improve this data; and
  • providing safe access to data for researchers.

Professor Nick Mills, British Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiology and Senior Responsible Officer for Data Driven Innovation in Health & Social Care at the University of Edinburgh, says “The DataLoch team is immensely proud to be one of the newest members of the UK Heath Data Research Alliance. Joining the Alliance represents an important step in our development as we seek to further enable improvements in health and social care through our recently established and secure data service. We look forward, with great enthusiasm, to the opportunities of engaging researchers and innovators, as well as collaborating with other Alliance members on exploring societal perspectives around priorities for health data research and transparency.”

Datasets

DataLoch currently hosts a variety of health data covering primary and secondary care in NHS Lothian. This includes hospital and GP activity (including diagnoses/comorbidities), laboratory testing, prescribing, inpatient electronic health records, and nationally maintained administrative datasets including births and deaths. A curated registry has been created for COVID-19 and further such resources are under development.

DataLoch Core dataset in the Innovation Gateway.

DataLoch data uses in the Innovation Gateway

Further information

Visit: https://dataloch.org/
Data-Driven Innovation: https://ddi.ac.uk/
Follow us on X (formerly Twitter): @DataLoch