HSCIC outlines planned changes for making patient data more secure

Access to patient data may in future be provided through a “data laboratory” managed by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) and housed on its premises, a meeting in London heard on 21 July. The option is one that the centre is considering in the wake of a critical report on data security at its predecessor, the NHS Information Centre.1

The HSCIC’s chief executive, Andy Williams, said that the centre would start a data laboratory service to enable people who were entitled to access data to do so “in a safe environment with HSCIC managed networks and facilities.” The aim would be to ensure the greatest protection of the public’s information, he added, by obliging users to travel to the centre’s own facilities rather than getting the data electronically or in other ways.

Asked …