What we do
Information technologies are revolutionising health care. At the UCL Institute of Health Informatics, we work to develop and evaluate data collecting systems and utilise the data these systems produce.
Large data sets can increase the detail of research findings and can ensure that they are reflective of whole populations by limiting the bias often associated with more traditional trials.
Central to our work are electronic health records (EHR), which offer unique opportunities to advance medical research, quality of care and outcomes.
To create a more effective research e-infrastructure and utlise the wealth of UK EHR for research, we created an EHR-based research platform and unique set of resources including:
- data from primary and secondary care linked to disease registries covering 10m people
- e-infrastructure consisting of state-of-the-art data safe haven and high-performance computing facilities
- central, online repository (600 disease and risk factor phenotyping algorithms, tools and metadata)
We have also built a body of research into how EHRs are used in clinical practice, and how we can design EHRs to work better. We strive to understand how people interact with records systems.
Our interdisciplinary, highly skilled staff bridge fields including data science, bioinformatics, epidemiology, psychology, computer science and information governance. They carry out world-class research and provide students with the tools they need to conduct research in today’s rapidly evolving field of health informatics.