Solution Validation: NHS and Council datasets for AI analysis
Challenge: Islington Council and NHS partners needed to validate public acceptance and understand resident concerns about linking health and council datasets in a secure 'safe haven' before implementing the data infrastructure to improve service delivery.
Approach Focus groups with Islington residents and service users using innovative card-sorting methodology to simplify complex data linking concepts and explore perspectives on benefits and risks. Partnership between Islington Council, Islington CCG, North East London CSU, and UCL, sponsored by Health Foundation Advanced Applied Analytics programme.
Outcomes
15 residents consulted across three groups
Key findings: public concerns, acceptance levels, safeguard requirements and how to position to the public
Decision made: data linking proceeded based on public input
Safeguards implemented in response to resident feedback
Research impact: service improvements enabled with future research projects enabled
Health outcomes or service delivery improvements from linked data insights
Pioneered a public engagement approach using innovative methodology
“They conducted research with Islington residents for us to explore how linking datasets would be perceived. I was impressed with how they took a complex project and distilled it into an easy-to-use card-sorting activity that generated relevant and interesting insights. They were flexible and adaptable throughout the project and worked well as part of our team.”
— Programme Director, Islington Council
