Transforming electronic health record data into effective capabilities: knowledge graphs and data flow

The past decade has seen a transformation in NHS hospitals, with paper notes being replaced by digital records.

These changes have built on a promise of better patient care, and the ability to use digital data to support clinical work and research.

Despite this, our ability to use data varies significantly between organisations and regions, with many locations exhibiting poor infrastructure for data use.

My overall goal is to study how patient data in healthcare records undergoes transformation from something entered in health record software, into a resource that can be used to return benefit to patients.

As part of this, I create a ‘framework’ that can be used to describe many different elements of how data moves from healthcare records.

I use this to create a map of health data movement and usage in South East England, which exhibits a wide range of technical approaches to this problem.

I examine what makes this process better and explore how resources built from patient data affect patient care and research. As a result of this research, I can give recommendations on how we can improve our ability to use healthcare data.