The SAIL Databank: building a national architecture for e-health research and evaluation.

Background: Vast quantities of electronic data are collected about patients and service users as they pass through health service and other public sector organisations, and these data present enormous potential for research and policy evaluation. The Health Information Research Unit (HIRU) aims to realise the potential of electronically-held, person-based, routinely-collected data to conduct and support health-related studies. However, there are considerable challenges that must be addressed before such data can be used for these purposes, to ensure compliance with the legislation and guidelines generally known as Information Governance.

Residential Anonymous Linking Fields (RALFs): a novel information infrastructure to study the interaction between the environment and individuals' health.

Background: The necessity of aggregating health data over areas can impede our understanding of health determinants.

Methods: We demonstrate the possibility of creating anonymous links between individual residences and the local environment using digital map data and a data linkage system.

Results: Digital map data were used successfully to anonymously link 1.

The SAIL databank: linking multiple health and social care datasets.

Background: Vast amounts of data are collected about patients and service users in the course of health and social care service delivery. Electronic data systems for patient records have the potential to revolutionise service delivery and research. But in order to achieve this, it is essential that the ability to link the data at the individual record level be retained whilst adhering to the principles of information governance.