Kent, Medway and Sussex Secure Data Environment

Sussex ICB has joined together with Kent and Medway ICB to create the Kent, Medway and Sussex Secure Data Environment (KMS SDE) for research.

This supports the 'Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data' strategy and builds on the success of the existing linked datasets within Sussex Integrated Dataset (SID) and the KID and KeRNEL datasets in Kent and Medway.

KMS SDE has:

• subject matter experts who can support researchers throughout the lifecycle of their project from initial feasibility to planning for at scale implementation (see our consultancy services below)
• a regional population demographic that offers an exceptional opportunity for research teams to explore issues that can inform local system transformation now and also provide findings to inform future national policy
• regional challenges that reflect those faced nationally - the demography and scale of the issues means that the KMS region is facing these challenges some years ahead of the rest of England

The information below provides a summary of the services provided to researchers by the KMS SDE. Contact us if you have a specific requirement not explicitly identified below - we will be delighted to discuss how we can best support you.

A secure workspace standard package will be implemented for each project. The package includes a cloud-based, secure VDI providing access to an instance of the platform, a suite of included tools, and support capabilities.

Technical summary

A secure Linux (AWS) or Windows (Azure) VDI.

Shared workspace per project supporting both Windows and Linux desktop environments.

Package Manager utilities for self-serve package downloads.

Included tools

Gitea | Jupyter Notebook | LibreOffice | Metadata Works | Python | R Statistical Language | RStudio | SQL Server & Management Studio (SSMS) | sqlcmd | VDI - Linux (AWS supported) | VDI - Windows (Azure supported) | Visual Studio (VS) Code

Optional tools

(May incur additional service charges)

PostgreSQL

Additional platform services

Some bespoke and third party products within the SDE can be supported but will need to be considered at the feasibility assessment.

Decommissioning and removal of a secure workspace.

We offer a range of consultancy services to support research project. These include:

• feasibility
• design/implementation for scalable solutions – health tech
• support for grant applications – subject matter expertise

Other consultancy services, from initial support with bid writing and feasibility assessment through to design and scalability of innovation solutions, can be discussed directly with the SDE team.

We can provide curated published datasets from:

• primary care
• secondary care
• prescribing
• community
• mental health
• demographics
• social care
• vaccinations

In addition to curated datasets, we also offer:

• a refresh/update of a published dataset
• the option to request an unpublished, bespoke dataset
• a 'bring your own data' service (publicly available/reference)
• a 'bring your own data' service (identifiable/cohort)

A full list of available datasets is published on the HDR UK Health Data Gateway.

To find out more about Kent, Medway and Sussex SDE:

• email the team at [email protected]
• visit the Kent, Medway and Sussex SDE website