The health informatics team at Health Innovation East designs and delivers secure, impactful data solutions that help healthcare, research, and life sciences organisations unlock the full potential of health data.

The team solves complex data challenges while upholding the highest standards of security, ethics, and public confidence to enable data-driven research and improve patient outcomes. 

Their unique strength lies in combining multidisciplinary expertise, including programme management, data governance, cloud infrastructure, data science, health economics and patient and public engagement, into one integrated service. 

The solutions delivered by the team include:  

• Making fragmented and unstructured datasets usable by transforming them into standardised formats that can be more easily used for research and innovation 
• Designing and implementing trusted research environments (TREs) that allow sensitive health and genomic data to be analysed securely 
• Navigating complex governance, compliance and public engagement requirements to deliver trustworthy, ethical and impactful data programmes 
• Enabling innovative research into areas such as inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis and cancer through secure data access and analysis. 

The team has supported several high-profile programmes, including: 

• East of England Secure Data Environment (SDE) – securing £10 million funding, on behalf of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, to create a secure health data platform for research and innovation. 
• CYNAPSE – building a secure, cloud-based research environment to enable translational research with genomic and health data. CYNAPSE is supporting several research studies, including a project to identify genetic factors that are relevant to multiple sclerosis. 
• Gut Reaction – a national data hub bringing together NHS and genomic data for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) research.  
• DARE UK – supporting the advance of Trusted Research Environments (TREs) to enable more secure data analysis and AI capabilities for sensitive health data research. 

Meet the experts

Mark Avery, director of health informatics

Mark leads the health informatics function at Health Innovation East and Cambridge University Health Partners and serves as director of the East of England Secure Data Environment. With extensive experience in health data infrastructure and multi-organisational transformation, Mark has worked across health and care systems to lead impactful, large-scale change programmes. 

Mark provides strategic leadership across the health informatics portfolio, guiding the vision, direction and development of data platforms, partnerships and innovation programmes. 

“For me, the drivers for what we do are clear.  Health and care systems have never been under so much pressure. Technologies such as AI, digital health apps and genomics have the potential to transform health and care, but the benefits can only be realised at scale if data is joined up across organisations and made safely accessible for R&D.”

Eleanor Hall, head of health informatics operations

Eleanor leads the team responsible for health data strategy, programme management, research governance, and health economics. With experience delivering major health research programmes across the NHS and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), Eleanor brings extensive experience of how to navigate complex research challenges. 

Eleanor’s team embeds patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) in the projects they support and, together with their understanding of data compliance and governance, this ensures that every project upholds the highest standards of security, ethics and public confidence. 

“What makes our team special is that we understand researchers and their pressures – as well as their technical and governance needs.  That means we can build solutions that are not only secure and compliant, but that genuinely work for our partners and the patients they serve.”

Keiran Raine, head of platforms 

Keiran leads the technical team, overseeing the development of secure, cloud-based research environments and large-scale data management solutions. With a background in bioinformatics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and clinical trial database development at Roche, Keiran is passionate about making health data usable and accessible, whilst protecting the security of data and patient privacy. 

Keiran’s team brings specialist knowledge in workflow optimisation, cloud computing, and analysis of different types of biological data. Whether supporting genome-wide association studies or designing and building secure platforms for accessible data analysis, these solutions help researchers collaborate more efficiently and speed up their research discoveries. 

“By securely joining up data from across organisations and facilitating safe access for research and development, we can help support the discovery of life-changing therapies, understand the mechanisms of disease and deliver more personalised medicine.”

The health informatics team combines strategic planning, hands-on technical delivery, and a deep understanding of ethical, governance, and public considerations. As a result, they are solving today’s data challenges and shaping the future of health innovation.