Our latest publication addresses the key questions that patients have about Palantir’s Foundry software. 

 

Last year, Palantir was awarded the contract for its Foundry software to be used to support the NHS Federated Data Platform. The Federated Data Platform is designed to help NHS England, Integrated Care Boards, NHS trusts and other NHS organisations to use data to plan and deliver care more effectively, as well as to reduce the administrative burden on NHS staff.

 

Palantir commissioned the Patients Association to understand patients’ questions about Foundry, and to provide answers in language that can be widely understood by both patients and carers. The Patients Association worked with patients across two focus groups to learn about the issues they felt should be addressed in a guide to Foundry. 

 

We also worked with Palantir to develop responses to the questions patients raised, and are pleased to publish the outcome of that work today. Alongside the full guide, we have also published a standalone summary of the issues it covers.

 

The Patients Association guide to Foundry covers a range of issues, including:

 

• How Foundry brings together different sources of data, changes the way data are presented, helps data be used for many purposes, and to make better decisions
• The way data is processed and controlled, as well as the how different permissions to access and use data within Foundry are granted, and where they are restricted
• Different examples of where Foundry has been used in the NHS so far, and how it could be used in future
• The security features of Foundry, how data are protected, and the way potential breaches are prevented and responded to
• How Foundry can help improve the experience that patients have and the care they receive in the NHS.
• The administrative benefits of Foundry and how it can support the NHS in times of stress.

 

Although our guide discusses the NHS Federated Data Platform, it focuses on what Palantir’s Foundry software is and does. The guide is not intended as a guide to the NHS Federated Data Platform itself. For more information on the NHS Federated Data Platform, visit NHS England’s website: www.england.nhs.uk/digitaltechnology/nhs-federated-data-platform/

All the information in our guide to Foundry has been provided by Palantir.

 

While the Patients Association has been supportive of the principle of the NHS Federated Data Platform and has advocated for more effective use of data in the NHS to improve patient care, this guide does not represent an endorsement of Foundry itself.

You can read the summary of the guide here

For the full version, click here

Chief Executive Rachel Power's blog on the project