Big Data for Complex Disease

The programme will link health records, genetic data, and other information from the entire UK population—roughly 60 to 65 million people—to study how complex diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease interact and affect patient outcomes. These two disease groups cause the majority of illness and death in the UK and globally. Yet researchers typically study them in isolation, missing how one condition influences another or how a patient’s characteristics—age, genetics, lifestyle—alter their risk and response to treatment. This project fills that gap by bringing together experts across disease types and data sources to see the full picture. If successful, the work could transform how the NHS predicts, diagnoses, and treats complex illness. Instead of treating cancer and heart disease separately, clinicians might spot shared risk factors earlier, tailor treatments to individual patients, or even prevent one disease by managing another. The tools and insights developed here could quietly reshape medical decision-making at scale, improving care for millions without most people ever noticing the infrastructure behind it.