Highlights: Research Data Access Portal

The NJR plans to develop a web portal to aid research and access to NJR data

Included in the NJR’s strategic plan is the need to develop a Data Access Portal for research and analyses purposes. Such a platform means that NJR data used for external research will remain within the NJR’s control and management. Researchers would be given a user account and a set of data on which they can undertake analyses using provided statistical applications.

During the 14/15 year, plans have developed for two elements:

• A physical infrastructure will be fully secured and managed which will enable remote users to log onto their specific project area and work on the data. User access would be managed by the NJR Centre
• A research-ready dataset configured and formatted for use by researchers. The data would not include any patient identifiers or sensitive data items and would only be available for an agreed amount of time. Initially, it is proposed to provide NJR data only, but discussions have been taking place with the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) to provide data from the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) service, linked to NJR data