Case Studies

Evidence of impact

These are some of our early projects: connecting data and technology to national and international research, in a way that empowers organisations to take part while keeping control. You can read more about the thinking behind this approach in our vision.

Metadataworks

Connecting Bunny to Snowflake inside the London SDE

Bunny is an open-source tool developed by our teams in the University, and is part of the national system from Health Data Research UK. The London Secure Data Environment (London SDE) wanted to use Bunny to connect their data to the national cohort discovery service.

We supported Metadataworks, who were supporting the London SDE, to make the necessary changes to Bunny, mainly around the adaptation to enable it to connect to a Snowflake database.

National University of Singapore

Advising PRECISE 100K on OMOP, vocabulary and federated connectivity

The National University of Singapore asked us to advise on PRECISE 100K, a large-scale precision medicine cohort, on how to adopt the OMOP Common Data Model properly: not just the structure, but the vocabulary that makes it usable across borders.

Beyond the data model itself, we advised on how PRECISE 100K could connect into a federated network, or a similar cohort-to-cohort collaboration model, drawing on our experience in the OHDSI community that maintains OMOP, and on running federated health data infrastructure in the UK. Disease doesn't respect borders, so it tends to help when those connections are considered from the start, rather than added on afterwards.

Health Data Research UK

Cohort discovery and OMOP conversion for the Dementia Trials Accelerator

Health Data Research UK sought our support for the Dementia Trials Accelerator to advise on how to use the Carrot and Bunny tools. The University of Dundee is using Carrot to help with the data curation process, and Bunny is used by HDR UK for their Cohort Discovery Service. We are advising both teams on the best use of the tools, and supporting adaptations to the open-source repositories.

Working with the development team at HDR UK, they are building new search capabilities into their cohort discovery tool that need corresponding changes to the Bunny software. We are supporting their adaptation of Bunny and integrating those changes into the main code repository, so the benefits are there for everyone using it. Better search and discovery, in this case, means researchers can find and reach a wider range of people eligible for dementia trials.