The Scottish government has published a new five year plan for a health and social care data strategy in a move to improve the care and wellbeing of people in Scotland and more effectively design and deliver vital services.

With a vision to empower both those receiving and delivering social and health care services, the strategy aims to make data readily accessible for safer, more secure means for planning, research, and innovation.

“We are also committed through the Strategy, to working out how to address inequalities in the system and some of the complex challenges we know exist in providing good enough, near real-time data as well as validated, robust data for the purposes of service planning and evaluation, and research and statistics,” Carol Sinclair, Chair of the Data Board for Health and Social Care said.

Seven priority action areas will be addressed in the new strategy over the next five years, with an over-arching effort to ensure an ethical approach to data is undertaken throughout.

Data Access

Work is underway to develop a Digital Front Door to provide individuals with digital access to their health and social care information, making it easrier for them to access and amend information about themselves.

Scotland is still seeking a way to develop a secure service for individuals to prove who they are to securely access data.

For professionals in health and social care, the Scottish government is working on developing a nationally consistent, integrated, and accessible electronic social care and health record.

Part of the solutions for driving the discoverability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability of data for professionals will derive from using the new Community Health Index (CHI) system to allow better data matching and sharing.

Talent and Culture 

Attracting, developing, supporting and retaining a data confident and competent workforce is the second of the strategy’s seven priorities.

Reskilling initiatives, such as The Building Digital Skills and Leadership Programme, are focused on equipping staff with the appropriate level of data literacy to ensure a the safe and secure application, handling and analysis of health and social care data.

Other, more specified programmes are in the works, ranging from leadership masterclasses and webinars, to exploration into AI applications, and education programmes with postgraduate qualifications.

Protecting and Sharing Data 

The nature of health and social care makes data sharing and protection extremely critical – these sectors often harbour our most sensitive personal data, which does need to be shared effectively across different institutions so people can access care.

Cyber resilience has been highlighted in the strategy, as well as ethical data use by providing transparency on data use and data sharing.

Building trust through engagement of the public, creating the condition for a mature approach to ensuring value from information, and introducing a more balanced, federated model of decision making across Scotland are some of the main actions listed under this priority.

Technology and Infrastructure 

Having the right tools is vital to ensuring a robust data strategy can be put in place. Priorities for health and social care involve structured data held within databases, unstructured data and information held in paper records, near real-time data from sensors and the Internet of Things.

Adopting innovative technologies like AI, improving data quality by monitoring the change programme being run by The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and becoming an environmentally sustainable service are part of the priorities involving technology and infrastructure.

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Information Standards and Interoperability 

Adopting and using comment standards is a priority to increase interoperability, in an effort to make it easier to re-use and link data.

Currently, there is a lack of consistency in data recording across the health and social care sector, according to the publication.

Following the National Digital Strategy’s call to adopt information standards across the public sector, the Scottish government aims to get the health and social care sector in line with FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).

To ensure this, organisations will work together to ensure information standards are fit for purpose, as well as setting clear information standards when specifying new system requirements.

Creating Insights from Data 

Using data to adopt a whole-system approach to create insightful policies for service improvement is another priority of the government.

Analysing the data gathered to improve the health and social care services will be supported by proper data sharing, investing in an analytical workforce, and ensuring key insights are readily available and comprehensible to readers.

Supporting Research and Innovation

Facilitating safe access to health and social care data for industry, innovators, and researchers to allow researchers and innovators to work with industry to develop better services is a key priority of the strategy.

Scotland’s ‘Safe Havens,’ with appropriate approval processes providing assurance that data is used in line with ethical principles will protect innovators and the industry, allowing new development while sharing data responsible.

“The vital work to be taken forward following the review of information governance will further provide a strong, future-proofed platform for change that will give assurance to the public, and enable those managing and controlling data to work more effectively,” Sinclair said.