Source: United Kingdom – Science Media Centre
Scientists comment on China being approved to access half a million UK Biobank GP records.
Professor Patrick Chinnery, Executive Chair, Medical Research Council (MRC; a founding funder of UK Biobank), said:
“UK Biobank is an exceptional resource for global health researchers, and the MRC is proud to be one of its original and ongoing funders. It was set up to enable international research, allowing scientists from around the world to apply for secure access to anonymised data from half a million volunteer participants, driving impactful scientific discoveries that shape the future of population health.”
“The findings coming out of UK Biobank-powered research are a testament to their managed access model which allows researchers internationally to accelerate the discovery of new drug targets, treatments and diagnostics. Their data protection procedures are comprehensive, and we have full confidence in how these are implemented.”
Prof Sir John Hardy, Group Leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL, said:
“Making data freely available is what drives progress and as long as confidentiality is maintained we should see this in that light. It is unfortunate that US and Chinese researchers are the major users of these data but this reflects the bureaucratic and financial hurdles facing UK researchers which limited their effective access. That is what we need to change”
Declared interests
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