Wessex Secure Data Environment (SDE) has successfully obtained approvals from the NHS Health Research Authority (HRA), marking a significant step in ethical and legal compliance.
The Research Ethics Committee has granted ethical approval for the project. Whilst the HRA’s Confidentiality Advisory Group has given the Wessex SDE permission to access confidential patient information without individual consent (this permission is known as a Section 251 notice).
The SDE will use this Section 251 permission only to link together data from different places. This is crucial for creating the big datasets that researchers need. Personal information is always removed or disguised before it is made available to researchers. Researchers never see confidential patient information.
This milestone not only underscores the Wessex SDE’s commitment to upholding the highest standards of data protection and privacy but also paves the way for groundbreaking research that can significantly impact patient care and health outcomes.
CAG Reference: 24/CAG/0013: CAG register – April 2013 onward approved research applications line 886
REC Reference: 24/NE/0028
For more information on the HRA approval process please see their website here.