Published: 4 October 2023
Our new Digital and Data Strategy will help us use the power of digital and data technology to protect and improve the health and well-being of people in Wales and to reduce health inequalities. It is part of our Long-Term Strategy (2023-35).
We use digital technology to deliver a wide range of healthcare services including:
Health screening services
Disease and health registers
Communicable disease surveillance
Microbiology and pathogen genomics
We also create and share data products such as official statistics, social and behavioural insights and academic research.
The strategy builds on the strong digital service and data science foundations already in place within Public Health Wales but acknowledges that there is more work to do. We will make sure that our digital services meet the needs of our users across Wales and focus on openness simplicity and interoperability. We will make sure our data sources are high quality and secure so we can provide advice, guidance and access to data for the people of Wales. All of this will need more collaboration and sharing with our users and partners.
As part of the strategy, we aim to be open by default and secure by design. Open by default means we will assume that as much of the data we create as possible should be available. Secure by design means that right from the start of a new piece of work we will be considering and managing the security risks for the data that should not be open.
We will put user needs first. That means we will design and run our services so the people who use them can get what they need and have a positive experience when they do.
We will use national digital and data standards to make sure that people can easily use and understand our digital and data services. These standards include:
The UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics
Welsh Government’s Centre for Digital Public Services Digital Service Standards for Wales
The Information Commissioner’s Data Sharing Code of Practice
Our strategy articulates a clear vision for data encompassing collection, storage, and processing. This means our data can be found and used easily in a variety of open, standard formats so it can be easily integrated into other services such as Electronic Health Records or the systems at GP surgeries.
You can learn more about our new strategy below.