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What makes OpenSAFELY special

→ Awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Education, 2026

→ 200+ projects, 100+ published outputs, 30+ organisations

→ It’s innovative, it’s secure, and it’s safe

OpenSAFELY is a new kind of data analysis platform for NHS records. It gives researchers access to the entire population’s GP data, for the first time in history.

To date (spring 2026), it has been used by analysts at 30 organisations, on over 200 projects, resulting in over 100 published outputs. It’s been formally adopted by the NHS as the national data platform for GP records.

OpenSAFELY is an award winner

OpenSAFELY saves lives

During the COVID-19 pandemic, OpenSAFELY provided real world evidence, in near real time, on key policy and clinical questions, driving changes in treatment guidance nationally and globally.

It informed decision-making at the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

OpenSAFELY helped to pinpoint who was most at risk from COVID-19, how well distributed and effective different vaccines were, and how best to vaccinate some specific patient groups.

OpenSAFELY has delivered new methods to protect patients’ privacy

OpenSAFELY balances the need for research insights, with the need for patient privacy.

It creates a secure platform for research, only accessible by qualified professionals. 

Those analysts never get access to raw patient data: instead they write their analysis code using randomly generated “dummy data”; then submit their code for automated remote execution against real patient records. 

This keeps patient information private. Nothing leaves the secure platform if there’s even the smallest risk that it might give away the identity of a person, or even a small group of people.

OpenSAFELY sets new standards for openness

Patient data remains secure. But everything about the OpenSAFELY platform, and the research conducted using it, is as open as it can possibly be.

All the code for the platform itself is public. All research code is public. All projects are public. Every line of code that runs is public.

There’s complete, unprecedented transparency – so that every aspect of every project is visible, reproducible, re-usable, and open to scrutiny.

OpenSAFELY is built on public and charitable money, by public servants, with all code and intellectual property given away under free open licenses for public good.

OpenSAFELY has support from the biggest names in medicine

OpenSAFELY is fully backed by:

  • The British Medical Association
  • The Royal College of GPs
  • NHS England
  • Privacy campaigners (such as MedConfidential)
  • The general public (through a series of Citizens Juries)

Lord Darzi called it “an extraordinary platform”.

Tariq Khokhar at Wellcome said it’s “a breakthrough”.

Matt Hancock, government Health Secretary during the pandemic, said OpenSAFELY was “absolutely fundamental to our response”.

→ Read more testimonials.