Future hospital

GOSH was one of the first hospitals in the UK to make all patient health data digital. It’s now easier for clinicians to look up information, and share what’s needed in a safe and secure way.

We have also developed a hospital app, called MyGOSH, where patients and families can pull up their health record, check appointments and, coming soon, find out about research studies they are eligible for.

As a world–leading children’s hospital with a unique group of patients with rare diseases, we have a special opportunity to use data in a way that can improve healthcare and drive research. We have already established international collaborations with leading children’s hospitals in the USA, Canada and Australia to help harness the power of data.

But we are also aware of the great responsibility we have as we grow into a hospital fit for the future of healthcare.

The Data Research, Innovation and Virtual Environments unit (GOSH DRIVE), part–funded by GOSH Charity, provides a physical space, meeting rooms and technology to enable collaborations in innovation, development and rapid use of digital medicine within the NHS. Patients, the public and researchers can be contacted, engaged and consulted in this space, developing research and feeding back as projects develop. We have supported more than 100 collaborative projects with UCL computer science students, connecting them to NHS patients and real–life healthcare problems.

In fact, GOSH DRIVE was highlighted as a best example of how a hospital’s data infrastructure has the potential to improve healthcare in a 2019 UK Government– commissioned independent report (Topol Review), and in a 2023 NHS guide to effective data partnerships.

Collective data can help doctors and scientists improve care for patients both here at GOSH and across the world, make new discoveries and find better treatments. It can even help develop new technologies that allow healthcare teams to make more informed decisions about a child’s care, drawing on information from healthcare teams, the children themselves and wearable technology.

For this research, information that identifies patients can be removed, so anonymity is protected while still harnessing the power of data.

The real-world patient benefits of GOSH’s Future Hospital ambitions have already been shown. For example, we were able to rapidly show the impact of COVID-19 on children, we were the only UK site able to contribute to a global consortium that identified and tracked different SARS-CoV-2 variants and, led by Dr Pia Hardelid at UCL GOS ICH, we have combined hospital data with that from GPs to investigate the best antibiotics to prescribe during pregnancy.