What is the BHF Data Science Centre?
The BHF Data Science Centre is part of Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) and works at the cutting-edge of cardiovascular data research. It resulted from a partnership between HDR UK and the British Heart Foundation (BHF). The Centre launched in 2020, and is building on an initial investment from the British Heart Foundation of £10 million over the first five years.
- We are the UK centre of expertise for enabling cardiovascular data science
- We create strong partnerships to improve health data science infrastructure and reduce barriers for research
- We involve patients and the public to build trust and ensure that our work meets people’s needs
News and Events
Find out more about our recent news and upcoming events
New research compares the rates of cardiovascular disease in people with and without mental health disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic
BHF renews £10 million investment in pioneering cardiovascular data science
Research finds higher rare risk of heart complications in children after COVID-19 infection than after vaccination
Health data for 57 million people in England show changing patterns of heart diseases before, during and after the pandemic
Areas of work
Find out more about our data-led research.
Whole Population Data
We aim to improve access to and use of high-quality, linked health datasets covering entire populations across the UK.
Imaging
Cardiovascular imaging research has the potential to transform disease diagnosis, risk assessment, and treatment. This area aims to improve access to imaging data linked to health-relevant datasets across the UK, enabling innovative research and improving patient outcomes.
Smartphones and Wearables
We’re working to unlock the potential of smartphone and wearable data to discover new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat cardiovascular disease, by establishing secure access to and fair use of smartphone and wearable data linked to healthcare records.
Enhancing Cohorts
We’re working to accelerate health data research by making it easier, faster, and more secure to link data from clinical cohorts with routine health records. This approach will help researchers uncover new insights into disease causes, progression, and treatment, improving patient care and outcomes.
Diabetes Data Science Catalyst
This exciting partnership between the BHF Data Science Centre, Diabetes UK and HDR UK aims to develop improvements in our understanding of the link between cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
Data Enabled Clinical Trials
By integrating routinely collected NHS health data into clinical trials, we’re helping researchers recruit participants more effectively, reduce administrative burdens, and generate real-world evidence that can lead to quicker, more impactful advances in cardiovascular care.
Defining Disease
To drive large-scale, data-driven research, we’re working to develop and share reusable definitions of cardiovascular diseases in computable forms. These definitions enable researchers to interpret and use health data, leading to more accurate and reproducible studies.
CVD-COVID-UK / COVID-IMPACT
CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT is a major research programme coordinated by the BHF Data Science Centre, bringing together a consortium of over 400 researchers across more than 50 organisations. The programme enables analysis of anonymised, linked, nationally collated healthcare datasets across the UK to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease, as well as its impact on other health conditions and risk factors.
Stroke Data Science Catalyst
A partnership between the BHF Data Science Centre, the Stroke Association, and HDR UK, using data to drive research into stroke prevention, treatments, and care.
Kidney Data Science Catalyst
This partnership between the BHF Data Science Centre, Kidney Research UK and HDR UK will enable researchers to securely access, link and analyse existing UK health data, speeding up the search for better kidney and cardiovascular disease prevention, treatments, and care.
Get in touch
Drop us an email to find out more about our work, news or events.
What is HDR UK?
Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) is the UK's national institute for health data science. HDR UK is uniting the UK’s health data to enable discoveries that improve people’s lives. Its vision is that large-scale data and advanced analytics will benefit every patient interaction, clinical trial, and biomedical discovery to enhance public health.
Find out more about HDR UK