Starting this month, biomedical researchers will have access to an unparalleled new resource—the health records of everyone enrolled in the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS), unless the patients opt out. The records, which will be made anonymous before being opened up to the scientific community, could revolutionize medical research in Britain, The Guardian reported, allowing scientists to probe for causes and consequences of a vast range of diseases, as well as the effectiveness and potential dangers of numerous drugs.
With patient records going back 4 decades, the NHS has already proven a valuable source of data for previous studies. The records have revealed, for example, evidence that linked power lines and childhood leukemia and refuted the autism-vaccine link that launched the anti-vaccine movement. Such research required many man hours to mine the NHS for the needed data, however. The new initiative, launched by NHS National Institute for Health Research ...
