BLOG: #OpenDataSavesLives session on 5 November 2020

46 attendees joined our eighteenth #OpenDataSavesLives session on Thursday 5 November 2020 which covered topics such as data sharing, better linked data and why data encapsulating sensitive issues like domestic abuse, of which cases have soared during the pandemic, could save a life.

Richard Vickery, DCI, Kent Police, presented a study on “Tracking the characteristics of lethal and potentially lethal intimate partner violence.” Richard’s primary function is to lead the investigation of homicides and this is what led to the study. In the vast majority of intimate partner homicides (IPHs) that Richard was involved in there had either been minimal or no historic police contact prior to the killing. In policing terms this means the report of a domestic abuse incident and the completion of the Domestic Abuse Stalking & Harassment (DASH) risk assessment. Richard attended many Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) and, without exception, they always pointed retrospectively to partner-agency information that wasn’t shared, which may have been a potential trigger to intervention and possibly prevention. Research showed that very few Police/Health collaborative studies existed, with none specifically attributed to domestic abuse. It is clear that local policing remains unaligned and non- integrated with other local public services to improve outcomes for citizens and protect the vulnerable.’ Improving data sharing and integration to establish joint technological solutions and enable the transfer of learning between agencies and forces is key for them to be able to work more effectively together to embed evidence based practice. You can view Richard's presentation as a PDF.

Professor Chris Farmer, University of Kent, looked at data sharing and what data sharing will and should look like in the future - particularly in terms of COVID-19 - along with the barriers involved, predictive analytics and modelling in healthcare, some of the recent work which the University has been working on, what Smart Healthcare should like, using Kent as an example and the importance of open data.

Chris Beeley, Senior Analyst, Nottingham Healthcare NHS Trust, told us why the government must share its code and associated working, making it transparent and available to all, so that it can be re-used and built upon. So why is open source sharing such a problem within the NHS and how can it be resolved? Chris covers this in depth, along with the battles of open source and what big organisations have prolific open source projects and are currently doing it well.

You can watch the full session.

You can find notes from the session in the shared Google Doc.