Nicola Hamilton

Nicola is the Head Data Operations at Our Future Health, a large health research programme based in the UK. The programme works by bringing together various datasets (questionnaires, clinical measurements, genetics, health records etc) relating to consenting volunteers to build a more comprehensive picture of health and wellbeing that could be relevant to understanding what changes people’s risk of disease.

She previously led Understanding Patient Data, an independent initiative which aims to make the way health data is used more visible, transparent and trustworthy, and worked at the UK Health Security Agency leading health data projects for infectious diseases. Nicola hasn’t always worked in data; she graduated from Durham University with a degree in English Literature and Spanish before teaching English as a foreign language in Spain. However, on her return to the UK she worked in a Citizens Advice Bureau where she provided advice to local community members and analysed the service’s data, and then moved into the Civil Service through the Civil Service Fast Stream, where she often found herself working on large data programmes. This is where her passion for data and public engagement met.

Nicola’s work with Connected By Data will explore how to build trustworthy health data research systems, working with individuals and communities, at a time where there is significant transformation taking place, particularly in the NHS. This will involve learning from good practice within the domestic healthcare sector as well as from other sectors and internationally.