I am of the view that it is highly desirable to look at the data in aggregate. There is a wealth of information to be mined from a dataset of this type, and the bigger the dataset the more valuable it becomes. If it could cross tabulates with additional information, particularly genetic, then this would be a huge asset.
Of course there are privacy concerns, I don’t see that these are an6 greater than they already are, just different. Data of this quality would have significant commercial value. Why not sell the output of the analysis? Would this not be a way of contributing to the NHS budget, and why would individuals object? With obvious potential for health gains then it would be irresponsible not to explore this.
Iceland has shown the way here, for example with the discovery of a genetic linkage to schizophrenia, new treatments for asthma being developed and significant advances in the understanding of the genetic basis for dozens of diseases.
|
NHS Digital Data Slurp 
NHS Digital Data Slurp 