PICTURES is investigating data science, engineering and cyber security to enhance the SMI. Supporting bigger datasets, smarter searches, more ambitious high-tech projects.
The PICTURES programme of work is about increasing the capabilities of Safe Havens to support emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and new data types such as images, MRIs, CTs, Xrays etc in health data research. Safe Havens are a place where pseudonymised linked health data can be made available for approved research in a safe and secure manner. They enforce the “5 safes”:
- safe projects = have the appropriate governance in place such as ethics and data controller approvals;
- safe people = researchers must have undertaken approved training in Information Governance;
- safe places = where data is held in a secure environment and accessed under restricted conditions for analyses;
- safe data = researchers are only given access to the minimum data required to answer their research question;
- safe outputs = outputs that have been assessed to ensure they don’t contain potentially identifiable or disclosive information.

These measures are in place to maintain the trust of the public that their personal health data is used for the benefit of patients and / or the population as a whole.
Read about the project context, find out more project details, see progress on our timeline and read stories from the team on our blog page.