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Introduction to the Secure Data Environment

Date Published:
15 November 2024

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Introduction to the Secure Data Environment

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Overview

Welcome to the Secure Data Environment (SDE) induction. In the following chapters, you can learn about what the SDE is and how to use it.

This induction is for users who already have a basic understanding of one or more of the following programming languages: Python, R, SQL or PySpark. You should also have an understanding of version control.

If you are a new user who has received an email about passing the induction before you can access the SDE, this induction is designed to teach you about what you should or should not do on the platform, and how best to use it for your analysis and research.

If you have a new SDE account, after you have read the information here you must pass the induction assessment. The link to this will be in your induction invitation email. If your organisation has not applied for access to the SDE, visit NHS England Secure Data Environment to learn more.

NHS England’s Secure Data Environment (SDE) is a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) that provides approved researchers from trusted organisations with secure access to health and care data. The SDE is different to other research environments that you may be familiar with in that you can write and run your code live with de-identified (or pseudonymised) data.

The SDE is designed in line with the Five Safes framework. This is explained in more detail in the following video. You can also find out more by visiting What is the Five Safes framework?

Support

This induction should take you approximately 1 hour to complete. There are several sections which are marked as optional and you can skip these if you do not feel that they are relevant. The information in these optional sections is not required for you to pass the assessment.

Audio transcripts can be found underneath each video.

If you encounter any problems accessing the videos, contact [email protected].

You can get extra support if your health or personal circumstances make it difficult to complete this induction.

To ask for assistance or for information in a different format, email us at [email protected].

If you have difficulty contacting us by email, call our Customer Contact Centre on 0300 311 22 33.

SDE introduction video

Here is a brief introduction to the service environment and the service team.

Transcript for SDE introduction video

Slide 1

Now you have read how the induction process will work, it's time to find out what the Secure Data Environment, or SDE, is. It's important to bear in mind that the SDE is currently in beta and is therefore subject to change and improvement.

Slide 2

The SDE is a service that provides approved users from trusted organisations with timely and secure access to health and care data. Within this service, users have access to a secure analytical platform, hosted by NHS England, containing pseudonymised healthcare data and a range of analytical tools and software. The SDE contains over 57 million patient records across 43 data products and 91 live research projects.

Access to the platform is only granted to those who meet the necessary criteria and have a legitimate need to access the data. Once this is approved, users gain secure access to health and care data in line with the Five Safes framework to ensure users access and use the data sets in a secure and responsible way.

Slide 3

These Five Safes are:

  1. Safe people, where we ensure that all SDE users are approved by their own organisations the SDE’s requirements.
  2. Safe projects, where all research projects on the SDE must be approved by NHS England’s safe standards.
  3. Safe settings, which ensures that the SDE, its services and tools are secure.
  4. Safe data, where all data is pseudonymised to ensure that it is confidential.
  5. Safe Outputs, which provides SDE users with a safe output service that is robust, effective, and transparent to third party audits. 

Slide 4

To support you whilst using the SDE service, there is a team made up of Data Wranglers, Output and Input Checkers and Customer Service staff that are available to provide support and guidance to you once you are set up in the environment.

As a user of the SDE you will have the most interaction with data wranglers who manage and prepare SDE data. The roles and responsibilities of the data wranglers include:

  • cleaning raw data and correcting errors
  • integrating data from various sources, standardising formats and resolving discrepancies
  • anonymising data to ensure compliance with patient confidentiality regulations
  • documenting data processing steps for transparency and reproducibility in research
  • assisting researchers with queries and troubleshooting
  • looking for ways to improve SDE processes - for example, by using automation speed up data validation

Slide 5

That brings us to the end of this video. In the following sections, we will provide a more in-depth details on the SDE and its features.

Last edited: 18 November 2024 4:19 pm

Chapters

  1. Introduction to the Secure Data Environment
  2. Accessing the SDE and the desktop
  3. Data sets and Databricks
  4. RStudio
  5. Import reference data
  6. Safe outputs
  7. Data set support and who to contact