The world's largest collection of curated eye imaging and linked clinical data is expanding across the country, in an initiative led out of Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL.
The INSIGHT Health Data Research Hub for Eye Health and Oculomics is benefiting from investment funding of £3.7 million awarded by UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
INSIGHT will expand from Moorfields Eye Hospital and create a blueprint for linking NHS sites across the country, supporting research, improving patient care, and fostering innovation in eye health.
As part of a four-year programme of work delivered through Moorfields Eye Hospital's strategic partnership with the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, INSIGHT will on-board NHS sites including Sunderland Eye Infirmary, one of the UK's largest regional centres for ophthalmology, working in collaboration with South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust and North East North Cumbria Secure Data Environment.
INSIGHT will also broaden national data linkages and integrate genetic data from the NIHR BioResource and UK Biobank to accelerate oculomics research, which uses biomarkers in the eye to detect systemic conditions such as dementia and cardiovascular disease.
Patient and public representatives will play a central role, working with project leads to embed standards for data access and governance, address risks of bias in artificial intelligence, and ensure equitable benefits for underserved communities.
The enhanced INSIGHT research data platform will grow from over 30 million images - currently more ophthalmic data than the top three centres in the US combined - to some 50 million images, consolidating the UK as the global leader in ophthalmology and oculomics research and innovation.
INSIGHT Director Professor Pearse Keane (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital) said: "This funding allows us to expand INSIGHT from Moorfields Eye Hospital into a truly national resource, with significant benefits for clinical research and public health. Ophthalmology is the busiest NHS speciality, increasingly under pressure as patient need grows. By providing a comprehensive, interoperable research resource for ophthalmic data, we can help to accelerate research discoveries, bring new treatments to patients faster, and ultimately reduce the burden of sight-threatening disease in the UK and globally."
Moorfields Eye Hospital CEO Peter Ridley commented: "The potential of NHS data to improve patient outcomes and tackle health inequalities is immense. We are proud that the INSIGHT Hub has led the way in harnessing routinely collected NHS eye imaging data for medical research, demonstrating how patient data can be optimised for research in a safe and secure way, involving patients and members of the public in decision-making. With this grant funding, we anticipate entering an exciting new phase in the Hub's development, supporting the UK's ambitions as a global leader in healthcare technology."
The award is one of five announced by UKRI MRC and the NIHR to enhance biomedical and health-related data and digital platform resources in the UK, following a UKRI call published last year.
