News Release

£6.7m to 'harness' the power of NHS patient data and develop targeted care

Barts Life Sciences - a partnership between Barts Health NHS Trust and Queen Mary University of London - has been awarded £6.7m by Barts Charity to research new ways to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a variety of diseases.

Grant and Award Announcement

Queen Mary University of London

  • Barts Life Sciences is harnessing the untapped resource of patient data to discover new ways of improving patient care.
  • Specific health data collected from Barts Health NHS Trust patients over the course of their care will be securely analysed as part of new research that will directly benefit the 2.5 million patients the Trust cares for, as well as patients across the UK and beyond.
  • The £6.7m investment by Barts Charity marks a significant commitment to deliver advanced disease prevention and treatment to a population with some of the highest rates of illness and disadvantage in the UK, and to support east London's growing life and health data sciences sector.

Barts Life Sciences - a partnership between Barts Health NHS Trust and Queen Mary University of London - has been awarded £6.7m by Barts Charity to research new ways to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a variety of diseases. The diseases that will be studied include COVID-19, cancer, heart disease and diabetes, which affect many in the east London population.

Barts Health is one of the largest NHS Trusts in the UK, caring for around 2.5 million patients in one of the most diverse and disadvantaged areas of the UK. This new multi-million-pound award will enable Barts Life Sciences to make better use of the information collected during the course of a person's NHS care - a currently untapped and underused source of data - which will be used for the benefit of patients and the wider population.

The data will be depersonalised and only shared with key, relevant researchers for analysis. The researchers will look for patterns and clues in the data which could teach them more about these diseases and in turn, how to better prevent, diagnose and treat them. The long-term aim is to deliver 'precision medicine' - to provide each patient with a tailored plan for how to reduce their chances of developing diseases and deliver targeted treatments.

Recent studies by Queen Mary researchers have shown the benefits of research using patient data. By analysing COVID-19 data in east London, they have recently helped to explain why the area has seen some of the highest cases and deaths in the UK, by confirming that ethnic minorities have twice the risk of developing COVID-19 compared with those from White backgrounds. They are also part of a national effort to develop and deliver a new tool to identify patients at higher risk of COVID-19. East London will be one of the first areas in the country to use this tool, which will help GPs find and protect high-risk patients.

To ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained at all times, the funding also supports a dedicated information governance and research management team. They will oversee the use of patient data, ensuring it is accessed responsibly and safely at all times and in accordance with legal and ethical standards as set out in the Data Protection Act, and by the National Data Guardian and the Health Research Authority.

Claude Chelala, Professor of Bioinformatics at Queen Mary University of London, said: "There is a huge wealth of patient data which is not currently being used as well as it could be for the NHS or for patients. This funding hopes to change that. We are bringing together GPs, surgeons, data and computer scientists and - at the heart of it all - patients, without whom work like this would not be possible. Working together, we will unlock the potential of this patient data and create meaningful information which can be used to transform the way, and speed at which, we find new treatments and prevent future health problems. This will ensure patients have a better chance of early diagnosis and are offered more effective treatment options, better suited to them and their disease."

Fiona Miller Smith, chief executive of Barts Charity which awarded the funding, said: "This is an incredibly important area of research. We are extremely proud to make this commitment not only to the people of east London, but to patients worldwide. We have seen first-hand through our previous work with the Trust and the University the impact data-led solutions can have for patients across a broad range of conditions, helping to find treatments where none previously existed. We are delighted to be supporting Barts Life Sciences in its goal to transform patient outcomes through the better understanding and analysis of data and look forward to bringing together some of the best minds to do so."

Panos Deloukas, Programme Lead and Dean for Life Sciences at Queen Mary University of London said: "This new funding provides us with a unique opportunity to make full use of the rich and diverse Barts Health patient data, in the collaborative, interdisciplinary environment of Barts Life Sciences. By appropriately and responsibly using this patient data, we can accelerate the discovery of pioneering and effective personalised medicine and translate healthcare innovations into tangible benefits for those in east London and beyond. Ultimately, we want to develop new personalised ways of preventing, diagnosing and treating a range of diseases, including inflammatory disorders, cancer and cardiovascular disease."

The funding will also be used to recruit three new professors to Queen Mary University of London and the Barts Life Sciences partnership. These individuals will be world experts in computer health sciences and lead the curation and analysis of patient data. The team are also recruiting a Programme Manager.

Reverend Alan Green, Chair of Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum, said: "We know that the east London population are disproportionally affected by a variety of diseases, including diabetes and Coivd-19. Research like this, which uses information from the local population to help find new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat these and other diseases in a more informed and targeted way is fantastic. It will truly benefit a diverse population that has some of the highest rates of illness in London and the UK."

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For more information, please contact:

Joel Winston
Communications Manager (School of Medicine and Dentistry)
Queen Mary University of London
j.winston@qmul.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)7968 267 064

Notes to the editor

* Some of the funding from Barts Charity will be used to appoint to a number of roles within the Barts Life Sciences Precision Medicine programme. The role of 'Programme Manager - Precision Medicine' can be applied for here:
http://jobs.bartshealth.nhs.uk/job/v2840073

* The funding provided by Barts Charity consists of £994,000 awarded to Barts Health NHS Trust and £5.7million for Queen Mary University of London, supporting Barts Life Sciences.

About Barts Life Sciences

Launched in 2018, Barts Life Sciences is a powerful partnership between Barts Health NHS Trust - one of the largest hospital groups in the UK - and Queen Mary University of London - a globally renowned research university. It brings world-leading researchers, scientists, clinicians and industry together to collaborate and accelerate the latest healthcare innovations from bench to bedside.

The Barts Life Sciences hub in Whitechapel, east London, is strategically located between Europe's financial hub and London's start-up community. It is also based within one of the most diverse communities in Europe, which has around 2.5 million people speaking more than 60 languages.

The life sciences hub is home to three biobanks and hosts 21 separate research repositories containing over 500,000 human tissue samples. Barts Life Sciences also hosts the largest number of commercial clinical trials in the country with over 34,000 patients actively involved in research programmes.

Find out more at: http://www.bartslifesciences.org

About Barts Charity

Barts Charity funds extraordinary healthcare for East London and far beyond.

Working alongside the Barts Health NHS Trust group of hospitals and Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry (part of Queen Mary University of London) it supports world-leading research, state-of-the-art equipment and innovative healthcare projects. The Charity is investing £30 million a year in London-based initiatives that will save lives and improve health outcomes worldwide.

About Queen Mary University of London

At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that a diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.

In 1785, Sir William Blizard established England's first medical school, The London Hospital Medical College, to improve the health of east London's inhabitants. Together with St Bartholomew's Medical College, founded by John Abernethy in 1843 to help those living in the City of London, these two historic institutions are the bedrock of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Today, Barts and The London continues to uphold this commitment to pioneering medical education and research. Being firmly embedded within our east London community, and with an approach that is driven by the specific health needs of our diverse population, is what makes Barts and The London truly distinctive.

Our local community offer to us a window to the world, ensuring that our ground-breaking research in cancer, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, and population health not only dramatically improves the outcomes for patients in London, but also has a far-reaching global impact.

This is just one of the many ways in which Queen Mary is continuing to push the boundaries of teaching, research and clinical practice, and helping us to achieve the previously unthinkable.

About Barts Health NHS Trust

With a turnover of £1.5 billion and a workforce of around 17,000, Barts Health is a leading healthcare provider in Britain and one of the largest NHS trusts in the country. The Group's five hospitals - St Bartholomew's Hospital in the City, including the Barts Heart Centre, The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, Newham Hospital in Plaistow, Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone and Mile End Hospital - provide high quality compassionate care to the 2.5 million people of east London and beyond.


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