Enhancing data security and accessibility across the region

Summary 

The Kent, Medway and Sussex Secure Data Environment (KMS SDE) is a collaborative initiative aimed at enhancing data security and accessibility across the region. By providing a secure platform for data storage, sharing, and analysis, the KMS SDE supports researchers, clinicians, and policymakers to develop insights that improve patient care, while ensuring compliance with data protection regulations. 

Challenge 

The lack of a unified, secure data storage and sharing platform can lead to inefficiencies, data breaches, and compliance issues. The KMS SDE was established to address these challenges by providing a secure, centralized environment for data management. 

Approach 

The KMS SDE was developed through a collaborative effort involving healthcare providers, data security experts, and technology partners. The approach included:  

• Conducting a comprehensive needs assessment to identify data security and accessibility requirements.  

• Designing and implementing a secure data environment that meets regulatory standards.  

• Providing training and support to healthcare providers to ensure effective use of the platform. 

Over 3.5 million patients records are covered by the platform, over three billion consultation records are linked and 99% of local GP practices are contributing data. The SDE was launched via two successful events and over 100 researchers engaged in the launches. 

Health Innovation KSS played a key role in shaping use cases, supporting stakeholder engagement, contributing to commercial models, communications, academic partnerships and public engagement. 

The KMS SDE’s 13-member Public and Patient Advisory Group (PPAG) co-develops governance, ethics, communications and commercial principles. Members represent diverse and underserved communities and report to the Programme Board. 

“I must say it has been a pleasure working with the KMS SDE. There is a real desire to weave and embed Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) across the work of the SDE and within partners working to inform it. But more than that – to build mutual respect. This has made collaboration in this space so much more enjoyable – so thank you. I think mutual trust and impactful collaboration as a result of these foundations, will only grow in 2025” – Michelle Gardener, Vice Chair of the Public and Patient Advisory Group.

Impact 

The KMS SDE has had a significant impact on data security and accessibility in the region. Healthcare providers now have a secure platform for storing, sharing, and analysing patient data, leading to improved patient care and compliance with data protection regulations. The initiative has also fostered collaboration among healthcare providers, data security experts, and technology partners, resulting in a more integrated and secure healthcare system. 

“The KMS SDE has transformed the way we manage and secure patient data, ensuring that we can provide the best possible care while complying with data protection regulations.” — Dr. Jane Smith, Chief Clinical Information Officer, Kent & Medway ICB.

The SDE enabled three pioneering use cases:  

• Tailored Electronic Product Information Prototype (ePI) – a partnership with Pfizer​: Only 13% of patients read medicine leaflets. This project is about making them personal, useful and safe.​ The SDE team created a secure, trusted environment for Pfizer to safely access pseudonymised NHS data, enabled data discovery to tailor guidance using allergies, conditions and demographics, and developed and tested a first-of-type international standard for electronic Product Information (ePI) through a ‘living lab’ with clinicians and patients. The team supported end-to-end collaboration, ensuring technical standards were met and public value delivered.​ 

• Tackling health inequalities in coastal communities: Coastal communities across Kent and Sussex face stark health inequalities – with higher rates of chronic conditions, lower life expectancy, and fragmented access to services. Disconnected health and care data makes it harder to understand the full picture and plan effective support. The SDE team created a secure, linked data environment to bring together NHS and local authority data on chronic illness and service use, and enabled deep-dive analysis of coastal hotspots with high disease burden and limited service access.​ This supported collaborative insight generation with the University of Kent and public health teams to inform real-world action.​ The team built tools to help local systems identify early intervention opportunities and tackle inequalities at source.​ 

• AI for early cancer diagnosis – supporting GPs with better tools​: Cancer remains one of the UK’s leading causes of death, yet early diagnosis is often missed in general practice. GPs face time pressures, complex symptom profiles, and inconsistent access to diagnostic tools. Earlier detection could transform outcomes, but primary care lacks effective decision support systems that can adapt to real-world complexity. The SDE provides a secure, privacy-preserving environment to test and validate AI models using rich, real-world GP and secondary care data.​ It enables researchers to access longitudinal, multimodal datasets for AI model development, spanning symptoms, consultations, and investigations, and supports semantic and metadata frameworks that improve transparency, consistency, and reproducibility.​ Led by Imperial College London, this NIHR-funded project shows how AI can support better clinical decision-making in primary care.​ 

38 further research projects in are now in development. 

“This project has shown the unique value Health Innovation KSS brings in convening partners, shaping strategy and embedding innovation into systems.” – Pfizer Collaboration Lead 

Spread and scalability 

A number of key lessons have been learned throughout this programme of work including the importance of embedding public and patient involvement early in the process, ensuring transparency and prioritising data quality. These lessons and the success of the programme are being spread through partnerships, public deliberation events, national communities of practice and cross-sector collaboration. The metadata has also been catalogued and shared nationally. 

The programme is also highly scalable via alignment to regional/national priorities and integration with the national NHS SDE network and Southern Consortium collaboration. Plans include scaling use cases, onboarding additional datasets (e.g. pathology, genomics), and expanding researcher access. 

In 2025-26, the programme will be transitioning from establishment to full operational delivery. 

Find out more 

For more information about the Kent, Medway and Sussex Secure Data Environment (KMS SDE), please contact scwcsu.kmssde@nhs.net.