Healthcare systems are under growing pressure to make better use of data to improve patient outcomes, manage demand, and plan services more effectively. In England, the National Health Service (NHS) Federated Data Platform (FDP) was established to address these challenges by enabling organisations to securely bring together data from across the healthcare ecosystem, without replacing existing clinical systems or compromising local control.

NHS-PET, powered by IQVIA’s Privacy Analytics Platform, provides the privacy layer underpinning the NHS FDP.  As a major user, the NHS FDP uses NHS-PET to enable governed and auditable use of patient data at scale, with support for pseudonymisation or anonymisation while preserving analytical value.  NHS-PET also enables secure linkage across multiple data sources and, where permitted, controlled re‑identification to support direct patient care.

This combination of secure data use and strong governance is already delivering measurable impact across the NHS.  NHS England’s latest figures show improvements across theatre utilisation, waiting list validation, discharge planning and cancer pathways, including 111,589 additional patients treated, 4.69 million referral-to-treatment records reviewed, 993,477 people removed from waiting lists, and a 15% decrease in discharge delays for long stay (21 days or more) patients.

Adoption continues to scale, with 139 NHS trusts live, 137 reporting benefits, and 35 integrated care boards now on the platform.

Driving Real-World Impact Across the NHS

The value of privacy-enabled data access is being realised in practice. NHS organisations are safely putting patient data to work within the NHS FDP programmes to support measurable improvements across operational and care pathways, including:

• Improving patient flow and reduce waiting times
• Enabling faster, more effective discharge planning
• Supporting service planning and resource allocation at scale
• Delivering population health initiatives
• Translating insights into action, where approvals allow

^{Source: NHS England » NHS Federated Data Platform uptake and benefits}

A scalable approach to health data privacy and use

Fragmented approaches to privacy design often prevent effective data linkage, limiting insight generation and reducing the value of data at scale. Inconsistent controls across systems create barriers to interoperability and slow adoption.

Within the NHS FDP, NHS-PET addresses this challenge by embedding privacy directly into data infrastructure. Privacy controls are applied consistently and repeatably, enabling meaningful data use while maintaining independent governance and robust protection of sensitive information. This supports secure data use across a population of more than 55 million patients, while maintaining clear separation between data access and privacy enforcement.

Embedding Privacy by Design with NHS-PET

NHS-PET applies privacy by design at the platform level by integrating privacy controls directly into data workflows rather than treating them as a secondary process.

Configurable treatments, including de identification, are applied consistently across datasets. A central dataset catalogue provides visibility and auditability, while encryption key management enables controlled data linkage. Access controls ensure data flows align with permits and support multi stakeholder oversight. Where authorised, re identification enables insights to be translated into action.

This creates a consistent, scalable operating model that strengthens regulatory defensibility while enabling data use.  These capabilities align closely with the direction of the European Health Data Space (EHDS), which emphasises enforceable controls, auditability, and scalable governance.

Performance at Scale

Delivering privacy at scale requires strong performance. Within the NHS FDP, NHS PET demonstrates that both can be achieved together.

Across the year to March 2026, NHS PET made safe to use over 2.5 trillion data fields, illustrating its ability to operate at national scale. In individual processing runs, NHS PET has transformed billions of data fields across large datasets in under an hour, significantly improving performance compared with previous approaches. The platform integrates with existing NHS data pipelines and supports both batch and near real-time processing.

This enables healthcare organisations to use data efficiently across different use cases while maintaining continuous compliance with security and data protection standards.

Recognised for Innovation

The NHS‑PET programme has received multiple industry awards recognising its impact and innovation in health data privacy. This includes the Bio‑IT World Innovative Practices Award (“Respect the Patient”) and the MedTech Breakthrough Award for Best Compliance Solution, highlighting its ability to operationalise privacy at scale.

These awards reflect the programme’s ability to combine scalable architecture, strong governance, and measurable outcomes in real-world healthcare settings, demonstrating that privacy-first data platforms can deliver tangible value at scale in practice, not just in theory.

Supporting EHDS and Future Data Models

The European Health Data Space (EHDS) is expected to reshape how healthcare data is accessed and governed across Europe. It introduces new expectations for interoperability, transparency, and enforceable privacy controls.

The NHS PET model provides a clear foundation for organisations preparing for this shift:

• Embed privacy controls directly within technology
• Separate governance from data use to strengthen trust
• Design for national and cross organisational scale
• Enable both analysis and operational use of data

These principles enable organisations to build data ecosystems that are both compliant and capable of delivering value.

Building Trust Through Technology

Trust is essential to healthcare data use. Patients, regulators, and stakeholders must be confident that data is handled responsibly.

NHS PET demonstrates how privacy enhancing technologies can create that trust. By embedding privacy controls into infrastructure, the NHS has established a secure foundation for data use that supports both compliance and innovation.

This consistent, auditable privacy layer enables platforms such as the NHS FDP to deliver measurable impact safely at scale — translating data into actionable insight while maintaining robust governance and public confidence.

“Better use of data is essential for the NHS. This [FDP] tool provides a safe and secure environment to bring together data, enabling us to develop and deliver more responsive services for patients.”    (NHS England, 2025)