Liverpool Eye Data Platform

There is an increasing move to use information stored in digital form on NHS computer systems to improve the prevention and treatment of health. This has been termed “digital health” and is one of the areas of great interest for the NHS.

In ophthalmology this has huge potential because eye disease is very common, accounting for around one third of all patient visits to Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust. Many patients attend for over 10 years for care of long-standing eye conditions, so there is a very large amount of information, often called “big data”.

Previously, researchers at St. Paul’s Eye Unit and the Department of Eye and Vision Science have developed a system to bring all the information about eye disease in people with diabetes into one place. This initiative delivered an 11-year cohort study and the largest clinical trial in ophthalmology to date. We now wish to put this system in place for all people attending St Pauls Eye Unit. The data will then be available to a wide range of academic and industry collaborators.

The potential for impact on eye care in Liverpool and beyond is huge. We expect to deliver whole population data for patients receiving eye care which can be used by health service planners to improve local eye care delivery. The team will develop powerful clinical risk prediction tools (facilitating more efficient targeted care), clinical decision support tools (delivering precision therapeutics to our patients) and new clinical research endpoints (for use in clinical trials of novel therapies). We expect the system to become self-funded within 3 years through grant income, service contracts and commercial contracts. The data platform will be an exemplar of information-driven health care. Our programme of research will be a springboard for digital health across the UK.

Our steering committee