While more health data is available than ever, its value is being lost due to poor integration, inconsistent access and siloed systems. Paul Christie, CEO and Co-founder of TachMed, highlights how better data sharing could enable earlier diagnosis, more effective prevention and significant cost savings for the NHS, while also improving outcomes at both an individual and population level.
Knowledge is power, and in the case of healthcare, having more information gives clinicians the opportunity to improve patient outcomes – not only for individuals but also for wider population groups too.
In a world where we have the potential to tap into more data than ever, there is a pressing need to break down the siloes which exist in our healthcare systems. Ensuring reliable access and effective reporting of this data unlocks professionals’ abilities to act quickly, intervening to offer preventative treatment and advice, while mobilising plans when wider trends across countries or even continents become apparent.
The true value of this data doesn’t necessarily lie in volume, but in how effectively it is collected, managed, communicated, connected and used. Building a solution that allow clinicians, researchers and public health leaders to access and interpret health data collectively – and at scale – will be critical to shifting healthcare from a reactive model to a proactive one built around early diagnosis, prevention and longevity.
Prevention for patients
Data from routine screenings and tests can be a powerful tool in helping prevent the onset or worsening of health conditions – but only if it is authenticated and the right people have access to this information at the right time.
Historically within the UK, different providers (such as GPs or hospitals) have independently held data only on the treatment they have provided or the results of tests they have requested. While there have been moves towards a single point of access for all health data relating to each individual, the 2024 Sudlow review reported the health data system was ‘fragmented and complex’, while a House of Commons briefing report compiled in summer 2025 stated ‘data sharing practices vary across the country, there is no consistency in what data is held where and why’.
There are time and cost efficiencies to be found through the rollout of a cohesive single system of data collation and sharing, governed by all relevant legislation such as the Health and Social Care Act, GDPR laws and the Caldicott Principles (specifically around the ‘need to know’ confidentially standard). In fact, PWC estimated more effective use of IT would save the NHS £4 billion.
But the most critical impact of enabling a more effective model of preventative healthcare to flourish is the number of lives which could be improved or even saved: the Office for National Statistics estimates more than a fifth of all deaths in England could be avoided through prevention and effective treatment – equating to 117,000 people a year whose deaths could have been averted or delayed.
Not only can comprehensive data sharing highlight when treatment may be needed at the earliest opportunity, it also gives clinicians a complete overview of a patient’s long-term health including any family history of specific conditions – and identifies where lifestyle changes can be encouraged to prevent or postpone the onset of health complications.
The World Cancer Fund estimates 40% of diagnoses are preventable, while previous intervention programmes have resulted in patients’ risk of developing Type 2 diabetes being lowered by 37% – as reported by The Times. Overall, Deloitte found an £8 return for every £1 spent on preventative healthcare, with an increase in proportion of NHS spending from 6% to 10% potentially saving £42 billion over ten years.
The wider implications
For individuals, the utilisation of data to diagnose at the earliest opportunity and enhance the reliability and prominence of preventative healthcare is clear. And the resulting cost savings from timely interventions lowering the burden of disease also represent the opportunity to invest back into healthcare systems, helping fund additional resources, more research and higher-quality services.
But there is also a wider implication around the ability of research scientists to identify trends. There are countless examples of data collation directly improving health outcomes, and the shift towards enhanced access will undoubtedly provide many more.
A total of 100 countries currently feed data into the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System, run by the WHO, to track mutations in the circulation of flu viruses – enabling them to predict which strains are most likely to spread the following season and informing the formulation of the next flu vaccine.
Similarly, data showing the spread of acute flaccid paralysis – a symptom of polio – was utilised to target vaccine programmes towards regions at the highest risk of being affected, following which the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) reported a 99% drop in cases from 350,000 to fewer than 1,000 a year.
With the enormous advances in technology and knowledge since the 1980s, when the GPEI was formed, the potential stored within all of the data we can now collect is huge.
But if we are to imagine a world where clinicians can reliably track the likelihood of any illness affecting an individual, a specific demographic or a particular region, we must first prioritise the universal implementation of systems which support the necessary collation and sharing of data which will empower a move to proactive medicine.
Ultimately, the era of data being scattered across multiple providers, without anyone having the full picture, has to come to an end if we are to modernise medicine and reap the benefits of accurate trend predictions, prevention programmes resulting in cost savings which can be invested back into more research and resources and the potential life-saving power of truly proactive healthcare.
