Today BC Platforms (BCP), a global leader in healthcare data management, analytics and access, announced the launch of the new Cohort Discovery (CD) search functionality on the Health Data Research (HDR UK) Innovation Gateway (The Gateway) – powered by BC|RQUEST technology in partnership with HDR UK. It will provide a pivotal resource that will help further the UK’s and global medical research efforts, including critical work on COVID-19 basic research, prevention and treatment.

The transformational CD functionality, powered by BC|RQUEST technology, enables global researchers to discover, assess and request access to datasets by searching for specific cohorts or demographic groups across multiple datasets. CD facilitates access to data in a fast, secure, de-identified and ethical way through Trusted Research Environments – safe and secure locations from which researchers can access and analyse data, without needing to move the data around. The function will be rolled out across all the 640 datasets on The Gateway, with COVID datasets being prioritised initially.

Nino da Silva, Deputy Managing Director, BCP, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen as the trusted partner for HDR UK’s ground-breaking, standardised approach to collection, storage and discovery of health datasets through its new CD tool, powered by BC|RQUEST. Our goal is to apply our deep knowledge and understanding of scientists’ needs to accelerate impactful research and translation. Our partnership with HDR UK therefore provides an important demonstration of how BCP can play a significant role in supporting national-level medical research efforts.”

Dr Susheel Varma, Director of Engineering, HDR UK, said “This new functionality enables us to perform analysis in whole new way and, as we continue to add more datasets into The Gateway, it will be a fantastic and growing asset for the research community, allowing new levels of analysis and insights that could ultimately feed through to the front line and improve patient care.”

CD will provide improved functionality to The Gateway dataset access platform that was launched in early 2020. The vision for The Gateway is to become the primary go-to resource for discovering data, tools, best practice and collective knowledge and experience related to accessing resources to further health research.

This partnership extends the existing relationship between BCP and HDR UK, first formed in October 2020, when BCP was appointed as the data platform partner for the CO-CONNECT COVID project. CO-CONNECT COVID was set up to bring together UK COVID-19 immunity-related data using a standardised approach, to provide researchers with high-quality data in order to enable the rapid development of potential vaccines and treatments.