Starting this month, biomedical researchers will have access to
an unparalleled new resource—the health records of everyone
enrolled in the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS),
unless the patients opt out. The records, which will be made
anonymous before being opened up to the scientific community,
could revolutionize medical research in Britain, The Guardian
reported, allowing scientists to probe for causes and
consequences of a vast range of diseases, as well as the
effectiveness and potential dangers of numerous drugs. With
patient records going back 4 decades, the NHS has already proven
a valuable source of data for previous studies. The records have
revealed, for example, evidence that linked power lines and
childhood leukemia and refuted the autism-vaccine link that
launched the anti-vaccine movement. Such research required many
man hours to mine the NHS for the needed data, however. The new
initiative, launched by NHS National Institute for Health
Research and the Medicines and Healthcare Pr