Ming Tang has told the AI and Data audience that the procurement process for the federated data platform is awaiting full business case approval.

The chief data and analytics officer at NHS England opened the Data and Research Stage on Day Two of Digital Health AI and Data, and confirmed that as per normal procurement rules a full business case approval would be required ahead official announcement of who the FDP supplier will be.

In response to a question regarding widespread concerns about the FDP, Tang said “I understand there are data concerns” that affects trust in platforms. She also explained that the FDP is not about creating a big data lake and that comparisons to Care.data are wrong.

Tang also spoke about the ‘Data Saves Lives’ strategy just over one year after its release, admitting that “progress has slowed a little bit” and has “not been as fast as they we would like in some areas”.

Looking forward, she said NHS England “will be working to a much more fluid and flexible roadmap for data and analytics”.

Tang was joined by Dr Raghib Ali, CEO, chief medical officer and joint chief investigator of Our Future Health, the UK’s largest ever research programme. He said the plan is to recruit five million people to take part. “The UK is the only place in the world where you can do this kind of study”, he said.

AI and Analytics Stage

Over on the AI and Analytics Stage, Day Two commenced with keynote speeches from Dr Nadine Hachach-Haram, founder and CEO of Proximie, Dr Ben Maruthappu, founder and CEO of Cera, and Dr Elina Naydenova, CEO and co-founder of Feebris.

Hachach-Haram spoke about surgical care and how “the challenges are multifaceted”, based mostly around workforce, safety and quality.

Maruthappu highlighted how quickly Cera have scaled, from 500 daily home visits in 2019 to 75,000 a day in 2023, and Naydenova pointed out that for every 1,000 patients, Feebris helps to save £500,000.

The inaugural Digital Health AI and Data conference took place 30-31 October at the Business Design Centre in London.