TAG: GS-3: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
THE CONTEXT: Ben Goldacre and his team have developed the OpenSAFELY platform, enabling access to the health records of approximately 58 million people in the U.K. without compromising individual privacy.
EXPLANATION:
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- OpenSAFELY is a secure, privacy-preserving data platform developed to allow researchers to access and analyze the health records of millions of patients in the U.K. without compromising individual privacy. It was created by Ben Goldacre and his team at the University of Oxford, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, to enable real-time analysis of vast NHS datasets.
Key features include:
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- Indirect Data Access: Researchers do not access the data directly. Instead, they submit queries, which are processed on a remote server that holds the health records, ensuring patient anonymity.
- Dummy Data for Testing: Researchers work on simulated datasets to develop their analysis code before running the actual queries on the NHS data.
- Transparency: All code submitted for analysis is made publicly visible, promoting transparency and preventing p-hacking (manipulating data to achieve desired outcomes).
- High-Scale Usage: OpenSAFELY is used for studies covering topics like COVID-19 mortality factors, missed diagnoses, and medication safety, with results frequently involving data from tens of millions of patients.
