Baroness Nicola Blackwood, chair of the Well being Knowledge Analysis Service (HDRS) (Credit score: UK Parliament)
Baroness Nicola Blackwood has been appointed as chair of the Well being Knowledge Analysis Service (HDRS), backed by as much as £600 million in funding from the federal government and Wellcome.
The Division of Well being and Social Care introduced the launch of the HDRS in April 2025 to convey entry to information for medical analysis into one location, that means that researchers would not have to navigate totally different methods or make a number of purposes for data for a similar mission.
NHS England invited purposes for the inaugural chair and chief government of the service in August and Zubir Ahmed, well being innovation minister, introduced Blackwood’s appointment on 25 November throughout a speech in London.
Ahmed stated: “I’m delighted to announce Baroness Blackwood’s appointment, who will play an necessary position in serving to us construct an NHS match for the long run.
“By unlocking the ability of NHS information safely and securely, we’ll speed up lifesaving analysis that can ship higher therapies for sufferers quicker.
“That is about harnessing the unbelievable potential of our well being service’s information to drive medical breakthroughs, whereas sustaining gold-standard protections for affected person privateness.
“Baroness Blackwood’s confirmed management in life sciences and innovation might be instrumental in making Britain the most effective place on the earth for medical analysis.”
Blackwood is chair of Oxford College Innovation and Genomics England and serves on the boards of biotechnology firm BioNTech and funding fund RTW Biotech Alternatives.
Her appointment comes because the HDRS strikes from planning to implementation, with HDRS permitted as a authorities firm and incorporation work in progress.
The HDRS is meant to streamline how well being information is obtained whereas upholding safeguards for information safety, privateness and moral oversight, enabling permitted researchers to speed up the invention of therapies to enhance affected person care.
It hyperlinks to the federal government’s 10 yr well being plan and kinds a part of its fashionable industrial technique and life sciences sector plan, with life sciences recognized as a key growth-driving sector that can create high-quality jobs and enhance the economic system.
Stakeholder engagement with sufferers, well being practitioners and researchers throughout the UK, happened between June and October 2025 to form the strategic ambition for HDRS.
This engagement revealed that customers want information that’s “analysis prepared”, accessible by a single entrance door, with clear and well timed entry.
Lord Vallance, science minister, stated: “Baroness Blackwood has vital expertise in life sciences and well being innovation. Her management might be essential because the Well being Knowledge Analysis Service will get underway.
“For too lengthy, researchers and the healthcare system itself have confronted pointless delays and difficulties accessing the well being information they should develop new therapies or assist enhance companies for sufferers.
“This ground-breaking service will change this – streamlining entry while sustaining rigorous safeguards for affected person information. This implies quicker growth of latest medicines and therapies and higher take care of sufferers.”
In November 2024, an impartial assessment of the UK’s well being information by Professor Cathie Sudlow, former chief scientist of Well being Knowledge Analysis UK, referred to as for obstacles to accessing NHS affected person information to be eliminated in order that it may be used for medical analysis.
