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Brighton & Sussex Medical School

Introducing the KMS SDE

Introducing the KMS SDE

The NHS Research Secure Data Environment (SDE) is made up of 12 SDEs, providing secure access to healthcare data for research and innovation, without the need for the data to leave its existing environment. SDEs for research are data access and storage platforms which uphold the highest standards of privacy and security of NHS health and social care data when used for research and analysis.

Sussex ICB has joined together with Kent and Medway ICB to create the Kent, Medway and Sussex Secure Data Environment (KMS SDE) for research, forming one of the 12 SDEs.

The KMS SDE allows approved users to apply, securely access and analyse de-identified (pseudonymised) health and social care data from across Kent, Medway and Sussex, providing a trusted data environment for approved researchers to use.

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What data does KMS SDE hold?

KMS SDE holds NHS health and social care data from Kent, Medway and Sussex, a region with a population of 3.8 million.

Examples of the data held include: demographic data, primary care data, acute data, ambulance emergency data, mental health data, community data. For further details of the KMS SDE data dictionary, please contact the team at scwcsu.kmssde@nhs.net.

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Who can get access?

For access to KMS SDE researchers must meet the following criteria:

  • Be an approved/accredited user
  • Be from an approved/accredited organisation
  • Have an approved project

How to make an enquiry?

To request access to KMS SDE data you must complete an enquiry form, which can be found here, under the ‘Information for researchers’ tab.

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What is the approval process?

The health and care organisations on the KMS SDE Programme Board are identified as the controllers of the data in the SDE. This means they jointly have responsibility to ensure the data is held securely and only used for activities that have been approved. Activities go through a robust approval process to ensure:

  • use of data is ethical
  • the minimum data needed is used
  • researchers and their organisations are checked and accredited
  • the systems used have robust security
  • any output of the data used is checked, before release, so it does not risk identifying people.

The data controllers must also make sure the public are informed about the use of data.

SDEs adhere to The Five Safes framework – a set of principles that enable data services to provide safe research access to data.

The five principles are:

Safe Data, Safe Projects, Safe People, Safe Settings, Safe Outputs.

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If approved, how is the data provided?

Data provided for approved studies is managed and stored by an NHS organisation, held in a secure processing location provided by Microsoft. It follows the Department for Health and Social Care cyber security guideline.