Experts from across Great Britain and Europe are meeting in London to find ways of better of using big data to improve healthcare.

Warwick Medical School, part of the University of Warwick, is hosting a summit for politicians, healthcare leaders, industry leaders and academics to examine measurement of health outcomes and the use of such information to improve outcomes on a large scale.

The event, The data challenge – patient outcomes: What should we measure, and how do we measure it? will be taking place on Friday 16 December and has been organised by the Dean of the Medical School Professor Sudhesh Kumar. He said: “In the UK, as across the EU, there is growing interest in improving the effectiveness of our healthcare systems by measuring patient outcomes. But what are the right set of measures? How can we use such measures to drive improvements in quality and efficiency in healthcare? Thought leaders from Universities, industry and NHS will come together to discuss and develop ideas to inform policy development.

“There are many classic Big Data problems that arise in many other fields, and few are especially tricky or as politically sensitive a field as healthcare management.”

Delegates will examine issues such as: what patient outcome measurements work; the three problem areas of data definition, data handling, and data analysis; how data are being gathered and what is being done with collected data. The delegates will consider the issue of whether once data is gathered will policy makers act on it.

The half-day event, which has been organised in partnership with Brussels-based think-tank Science|Business is being held at Warwick Business School’s London base at The Shard. Prior to the sessions, the conference will start with a question and answer session on the future of life sciences in the UK & Europe. Vice Chancellor and President of the University of Warwick, Professor Stuart Croft, said: “This Warwick Medical School event is an example of how the University of Warwick is bringing together industry and academia – in this instance the medical technology sector. The University has a lot to offer industry, including job creation driven by our knowledge.”

The University of Warwick has been working with European partners to improve healthcare. An example of this is the C3-Cloud system which aims to transform current care models which are mostly fragmented, addressing chronic conditions in isolation. The researchers have been awarded EUR 5 Million to lead pilots of the system in three countries. Working with the University’s Institute of Digital Healthcare the system will allow for the creation of a personalised treatment plan for each patient by allowing hospitals, general practitioners and social care organisations across the health and care system to exchange information and coordinate care more effectively. The project will contribute to significant research breakthroughs in healthcare such as the introduction of new models of patient-centric, integrated care, and the development of automated IT supported clinical decision making which will prevent incompatible treatment plans.

14 December 2016

For further details please contact Nicola Jones, Media Relations Manager, University of Warwick 07920531221 or N.Jones.1@warwick.ac.uk.