VISTA: Viable Implementation of SATRE, SACRO and Tools for AI

VISTA will support the East of England Secure Data Environment (SDE) (one of 11 sub-national SDEs in England) to enhance its existing processes, by accelerating the adoption of Al and machine learning capabilities and improving its capacity for large-scale research projects involving sensitive data. This will enable complex research at scale, increasing efficiency and driving new scientific discoveries to benefit patients.

Drawing on insights from the East of England SDE’s platform development, which follows the SATRE reference architecture developed as part of the DARE UK Phase 1 Driver Projects, VISTA will help refine SATRE  to ensure it meets the needs of future TRE implementations. The project will also test and assess Semi-Automated Checking of Research Outputs (SACRO) tooling at scale, to support its readiness for wider adoption.

VISTA’s efforts will ultimately enhance TRE/SDE standards and capabilities, allowing researchers to safely train and export AI and machine learning models, enabling and speeding up new projects and advancing research for patient and public benefit.

By the end of the project, VISTA will:

• Deliver a gold-standard benchmarking of a SATRE TRE implementation, supporting its next stage of development.
• Test and refine semi-automated research output checking within the East of England SDE, improving its readiness for adoption across other TREs.
• Safely train and export outputs from AI and machine learning models, enabling previously unfeasible projects to move forward.
• Support AI model readiness for real-world deployment in NHS services, benefiting patients and the public.

Project information

Lead organisation: Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Principal investigator:  Dr Alexis Joannides, Chief Research Informatics Officer, Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon, Co-Director of NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Brain Injury, Cambridge University Hospitals
Project duration: 14 months
Project partners: Health Innovation East, Cambridge University Health Partners
Funding provided: £393,725
Primary contact email: eoe-sde@healthinnovationeast.co.uk

Relevant links

• East of England Secure Data Environment
• Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Cambridge University Health Partners
• Health Innovation East
• SATRE: Standardised Architecture for Trusted Research Environments
• SACRO: Semi-Automated Checking of Research Outputs