** NEW EPIC PAPER from our DATALAB **
We ship tools to >100,000 users a year.
We constantly find the NHS breaching best practice around open data.
THIS BLOCKS INNOVATION.
We've now summarised all these barriers in one huge paper. 1/n
jmir.org/2020/1/e15603/
We ship tools to >100,000 users a year.
We constantly find the NHS breaching best practice around open data.
THIS BLOCKS INNOVATION.
We've now summarised all these barriers in one huge paper. 1/n
jmir.org/2020/1/e15603/
This paper is hard work, but rewarding. You HAVE to read it.
The NHS aspires to be a data driven organisation. The proof is delivery. In @EBMDataLab we have up-close experience of working on NHS data. We hit barriers at every step: those barriers show what needs to change. 2/n
The NHS aspires to be a data driven organisation. The proof is delivery. In @EBMDataLab we have up-close experience of working on NHS data. We hit barriers at every step: those barriers show what needs to change. 2/n
First up, the prescribing data itself. Best practice is that this should be easily discoverable, accessible without human intervention, made available at addresses that do not change, and documented so the relevant concepts are clearly explained. The reality....
This data randomly changes location. Every time the location of the data changes, it breaks the software we have written to automatically download it. There are two versions of the data: they don't cross reference each other. One is no longer in NHS England's "Data Catalogue"...
To download one NHS open dataset, that changes monthly, you need to fill out a CAPTCHA. So it can never be automated. The NHS should be helping this work be done by machines. But every month an engineer has to stop work to prove - manually and needlessly - that we are humans...
Then there is the content of the data. The British National Formulary data schema changes from time to time. Who knew? Nobody. There's no mention from the NHS anywhere that such changes are possible. We inferred it following user enquiries about apparently disappearing drugs...
We now email a person in the NHS annually for a spreadsheet detailing the changes. This is not okay. BUT we do not complain mindlessly. Our paper is full of detailed recommendations. For example....
The fact that the BNF data schema changes regularly should be documented. And BNF code changes should be published monthly as a mapping. Oh, I didn't mention that: we have inferred the NHS BNF data schema changes MONTHLY, but we can only get ANNUAL changes from NHS BSA...
Here's an interesting side note. We don't just share 44,000 lines of code on GitHub, we also share about ONE THOUSAND issues so you can see how we work, and how we work around NHS data barriers. Here's the BNF data schema one: github.com/ebmdatalab/ope…
Okay, I have to stop now to work on the press release for our next big paper out this week. Come back tomorrow for more hellish tales of bad practice around NHS data, and read the paper! jmir.org/2020/1/e15603/
I really mean it. Anyone can read and understand this paper. Its contents will make you WEEP at the chaos of how the NHS handles data. It will make you YEARN for change. It will make you stand on a table and CHEER for our recommendations. jmir.org/2020/1/e15603/
