e-Lab FAQ

Q. What is an e-Lab?

A.  An e-Lab provides controlled access to data and its associated metadata that has been integrated from multiple underlying health data sources and anonymised to protect privacy and confidentiality. The data accessible through the e-Lab has been organised, cleaned and verified. The e-Lab provides tools to interpret and analyse data.

Q. What data is stored in the e-Lab?

A.  The e-Lab Data Repository stores linked anonymised individual patient level information extracted from electronic health records and also from other registers where they exist.

Q. How is the data anonymised in e-Lab?

A.Linked anonymised information is created by replacing patient identifiers by alternative (meaningless) alphanumeric fields and by transforming potential identifiers such as birth data and postcode to partial forms.

Q. How do e-Lab users access data in the e-Lab?

A. The user accesses the e-Lab from their computer via a web browser. The user logs on to the Local e-Lab by supplying their user name and password. From the user workbench they are then able to access a fully anonymised subset of the data for which they have permission. 

Q. How does the e-Lab implement research governance?

A. All requests for data must be approved by the Governance Board before access is granted.