Can data really save lives? Connected Health Cities and The Farr Institute work with patients and members of the public across the UK to raise awareness of sharing and re-using patient data in medical research, and to understand the questions people have about this.

The ambition is to show how under-used patient data can become meaningful information, providing new insights into the way that patients use and access services and helping to create a more joined-up, responsive health system, benefiting us all.

The #datasaveslives public engagement campaign, led by Dr Mary Tully, highlights the positive ways that patient data is securely reused to improve health services. But, perhaps more crucially, it also looks to reflect public values, interests and concerns to ensure there is public trust in health research and technology development.

The campaign asks challenging but key questions: what is health data and how is it used; what do people think about using health data; and how do we encourage two-way conversations about using health data?

#datasaveslives has developed into a range of public engagement activities in schools, festivals, science fairs and hospitals, as well as citizen juries. It has been used to create a short animated film that explains how UK universities are using patient data to improve health and care, and the measures they must undertake to ensure that patient data remains safe and protected.

A number of important health organisations such as the Wellcome Trust, NHS Digital, and the World Health Organisation have signed up and added their support to the campaign.

Find out more on the Connected Health Cities website.