SUSTAIN South West

SUSTAIN South West is a collaboration between the University of Plymouth and University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust. Made up of academic clinicians, data scientists and governance experts, it aims to leverage the unique demographics, geography and healthcare infrastructure of the South West Peninsula to produce data driven solutions to unmet healthcare needs.

This means developing technologies which allow earlier diagnosis, enable disease risk stratification and/or improve patient safety. Our projects, which span a range of disease areas, are selected because they have a high chance of making a rapid impact on patient care. We are funded from a range of sources including the UKRI Medical Research Council, the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the National Institute of Health Research.

Central to our work is the use of routinely collected healthcare data in a transparent, safe and secure manner. We use this data to enable development of models (often using Artificial Intelligence or other advanced bioinformatic/statistical techniques) to improve the performance of healthcare systems, allowing cheaper, better care for patients. To enable this, we have developed a strategic network of collaborators and supporters across the South West Peninsula of the United Kingdom. This network draws on expertise in the academic, healthcare and commercial sectors, to enable development of technologies in the most rapid and efficient way possible. We hope that our work will improve the delivery of healthcare and add to the economic prosperity of the South West Peninsula and the UK.