Bringing Healthcare Data to Life

我们的目标是使人口医疗保健数据的丰富和复杂的历史从数字探索、分析、比较、决策和演示中可见。这意味着开发新的可视化分析、可视化方法和开源软件，可以应用于任何基于英国的公共医疗保健数据集合：临床调试组、NHS数据、电子健康记录（EHR）数据和地理信息。它整合了一个多学科团队，结合了卫生研究、统计学、软件工程、视觉分析、可视化和工业方面的专业知识。我们生活在一个前所未有的数据收集和存储的时代，这是由低成本的存储技术和快速增长的计算能力驱动的。然而，我们收集和存储数据的能力远远超过了我们从中获取有用信息和知识的能力。这是数据可视化和可视化分析发挥的重要作用。可视化和视觉分析利用了迄今为止最强大（最快、信息量最大）的人类感官——视觉系统，以便对可能无法获取的数据进行理解和获得新的见解。简单地说，当我们看到数据时，它会更有用。集体医疗数据存档和分析是英国健康国家战略的基石。因此，投入了大量资源和投资，以确保NHS得到最好的医疗保健数据分析的支持。这项投资的核心是利用新颖的研究、技术和数据分析，从目前最先进的技术中创造一个台阶，并告知我们如何以最有效的方式支持NHS。支持医疗保健数据和分析的战略的一个重要组成部分是通过大数据收集方面的重大协调努力，例如，英格兰公共卫生部、南威尔士SAIL数据库、SAHSU和InfoBase Cymru，仅举几例。这些计划收集和归档的数据是巨大的，并且在不断增长。仅SAIL数据库就存储了500多万匿名患者20多年来的医疗数据，产生了数十亿份电子健康记录（EHRs）。虽然数据收集过程是改善医疗保健的一个关键方面，但额外的专业知识和跨学科研究对于从数据中提取有用的信息、理解和做出明智的决策至关重要。该项目将开发免费、开源、新颖的可视化分析和可视化软件，以研究英国快速增长的大医疗数据量。通过向医疗保健数据分析师开放和展示英国大量医疗保健数据（包括EHR数据）的可视化和图形化描述，一个全新的健康理解、探索、分析、比较和参与的数字世界成为可能。这一医疗冒险恰逢人们对改善英国集体健康的兴趣迅速上升。观察以英国为中心的医疗保健数据的新的和可访问的方法将使新的见解和推进英国的集体健康的演变学术和公众的理解。随着人口老龄化的加剧，以及NHS照顾英国集体健康和福祉的压力越来越大，这种理解变得越来越重要。

Our aim is to make rich and complex histories of population healthcare data literally visible for digital exploration, analysis, comparison, decision making, and presentation. This means developing new visual analytics, visualisation methodologies and open source software which can be applied to any UK-based collection of public healthcare data: clinical commissioning groups, NHS data, Electronic Health Records (EHR) data, and geographical information. It incorporates a multi-disciplinary team combining expertise in health research, statistics, software engineering, visual analytics, visualisation, and industry.We live in a time of unprecedented data collection and storage driven by the low cost of storage technologies and rapid increases in computing power. However, our ability to collect and store data vastly exceeds our ability to derive useful information and knowledge from it. This is the vital role that data visualisation and visual analytics play. Visualisation and visual analytics exploit the most powerful (the fastest and most informative) human sense by far, the visual system, in order to understand and derive new and fresh insight into what otherwise might be inaccessible data. Simply put, data is much more useful when we can see it.Collective healthcare data archive and analysis are cornerstones of the UK's healthy nation strategy. As such, tremendous resources and investment are given to ensure that the NHS is supported by the best healthcare data analytics possible. Core to this investment is exploiting novel research, technology, and data analytics that create a step change from the current state-of-the-art and informs our understanding how to support the NHS in the most efficient ways. A vital component of the strategy to support healthcare data and analysis is through major concerted efforts in big data collection, e.g., Public Health England, the SAIL Databank in South Wales, SAHSU, and InfoBase Cymru, to name just a few.The data these initiatives collect and archive is massive and constantly growing. The SAIL database alone stores over 20 years worth of healthcare data on more five million anonymised patients resulting in billions of electronic health records (EHRs). While data collection process is a critical aspect towards improving healthcare, additional expertise and cross-disciplinary study are vital to extract useful information, understanding, and making informed decisions from the data. This project will develop free, open source, novel visual analytics and visualisation software to study the UK's rapidly increasing volume of big healthcare data. By opening up and exposing the healthcare data analysts to visual and graphical depictions of the enormous collection of the UK's healthcare data including EHR data, a whole new digital world of health understanding, exploration, analysis, comparison and engagement is possible. This healthcare adventure coincides with a rapid rise in interest to improve the collective health of the UK. New and accessible ways of observing UK-centric healthcare data will enable new insight and advance scholarly and public understanding of the evolution of the UK's collective health. Such understanding grows ever-more crucial with the rise in ageing population and increasing pressure on the NHS to take care of the UK's collective health and well-being.