We are the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford.
We take huge datasets and turn them into traditional academic research papers; but we also build live, interactive data-driven tools and services for everyone to use.
We are a mixed team of software developers, clinicians and academics; we pool skills, knowledge, and best practice from each of these three disciplines.
We use modern, open methods, sharing all analysis and platform code online to support reproducibility, trust, and efficient re-use.
When we encounter technical, regulatory, or organisational blockers to the better use of data, we don’t give up: we share practical policy insights, to help keep things moving for everyone.
In this guest blog James Galloway a Professor of Rheumatology and an Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist in South London, at King’s College London describes how his team used OpenPrescribing to reduce unsafe methotrexate prescribing and shares his thoughts on improving quality of care may deliver most improvements for the populations health.
We are looking for people to be part of a new Experience-led Public Advisory Group that will meet regularly to advise and guide the development phases of the OpenSAFELY-Talking Therapies programme.
How you can run custom analyses of variation in medicines issuing across NHS trusts, ICB, region and nationally.
More than ever before, we now have access to vast amounts of data. We have a responsibility to use, analyse, develop and apply this data in an ethical way to promote change for good — with an emphasis on targeting the right kind of growth and achieving levelling up in society.
The founding of the Bennett Institute will allow for more collaboration and flexibility, to respond quickly to global health emergencies and policy challenges alike. It's particularly exciting to continue our work on data outside of medicine, across the broader policy space.
The experience of the pandemic has demonstrated the centrality of both data and evidence, not only in shaping sound government policies, but also in improving public health outcomes. Ben Goldacre and his team have shown just how important universities have been in contributing to the nation's health and well-being.
The multidisciplinary DataLab team led by Ben Goldacre, have pioneered the use of routine data in novel and impactful ways on clinical care and policy, attracting this most generous donation from Peter Bennett. Their OpenPrescribing platform is used by very large numbers of clinical practitioners and NHS providers to improve prescribing practice. Very rapidly during the pandemic, the team delivered the world’s largest routine clinical dataset OpenSAFELY that helps answer key answers to how we better protect the public from the impacts of COVID-19.
