SWAIH (South West Analytics and Infrastructure in Healthcare) is a regional network for analysts, researchers and others using health and care data across the South West of England. In its own words:
SWAIH is a network that hosts meetings, workshops and online talks for people working with healthcare data for research in the South West.
SWAIH began in late 2022, prompted by the Goldacre review, the Data Saves Lives strategy and the creation of regional Secure Data Environments for the NHS. The University of Exeter hosts it, and its funders and supporters are the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula (PenARC), the NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre, Health Data Research UK and the Great Western Secure Data Environment.
SWAIH runs:
- an annual meeting - held since 2024, most recently in July 2026 at Sandy Park, Exeter
- Insight Talks - described as “regular online talks, including discussions and Q&As”
- the SW Data Science Hub - “a focused in-person group for analysts and data leads to learn and work together across Cornwall, Devon and Somerset”, which meets monthly at the University of Exeter and offers training in Python, R, GitHub, simulation, forecasting, process mining and more
You can join the mailing list or get in touch through the SWAIH website.
Recordings
Recordings of SWAIH’s Insight Talks are available on YouTube. They include:
- health data infrastructure - such as the SAIL Databank, the One Devon Dataset, the OMOP Common Data Model, the UK Health Data Research Alliance and the South West Secure Data Environment
- data science in the NHS - such as introducing data science and open methods into NHS teams, and using data science to improve NHS performance
- analytical methods and tools - such as process mining (with a follow-up workshop), modelling patient flow between acute, community and social care, and OpenPrescribing.net
- careers and skills - such as the National Competency Framework for health data analysts, and NIHR Academy funding for data science careers
Search the talks
Search for a talk by title, speaker, year or topic. Newest talks are listed first.
| Talk | Year | Type | Duration | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWSDE Supporting VCSEs | 2026 | Webinar | 00:23:48 | Henry Ireland, Adam Horton-Tuckett and Andy Gibson from the South West Secure Data Environment team gave an introduction to the support the SWSDE can provide to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises. Topics included a technical overview of the SWSDE, developing processes and resources, and… |
| Process Mining Workshop | 2026 | Workshop | 00:29:59 | Owen Johnson returns for a deeper dive into Process Mining |
| OpenPrescribing.net | 2026 | Webinar | 00:32:36 | In this talk Richard Croker - Chief Pharmacist, Primary Care at NHS Devon, and Clinical Informatics team lead at the Bennett Institute developing OpenPrescribing.net - provides an accessible introduction to the latest suite of tools offered by OpenPrescribing. He explains how individual practices… |
| Process Mining | 2026 | Webinar | 00:34:13 | Process mining can be useful within a data analyst’s tool kit - bridging data science methods like data mining, and process science methods like process modelling and improvement. In this talk, the case is made that processes need to be mapped, mined and fully understood before AI can be… |
| UK Health Data Research Alliance | 2025 | Webinar | 00:34:43 | An overview of the Alliance, its role in shaping the UK health data research landscape, and how researchers, both within and outside member organisations, can engage with its initiatives. |
| NIHR Academy - Career Development Opportunities for Data Science in Health and Care | 2025 | Webinar | 00:33:13 | This Insight talk introduces the career development programmes available through the NIHR Academy - with a particular focus towards funding support for those using Data Science tools and methods for health and care research. Chris and Kieran cover the range of opportunities across all career… |
| IPACS - Improving Patient Flow between Acute, Community and Social Care | 2025 | Webinar | 00:33:36 | This talk introduces the IPACS project - exploring how to optimize capacity for complex patient discharge pathways and understand how to alleviate the shortage of acute beds that results from any delays in discharge to social care . Transferring patients from hospitals to their homes or temporary… |
| Data Science to improve NHS performance | 2024 | Webinar | 00:42:38 | Introducing data science and advanced analytics techniques into an NHS team can be daunting. Building on our previous SWAIH Insight talk Simon will offer a practical introduction to how you can progress from excel spreadsheets towards open coding, using NHS performance as a case study. The talk… |
| OMOP Common Data Model | 2024 | Webinar | 00:23:48 | A SWAIH Insight Talk from Quin Ashcroft of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, introducing OMOP, and explaining how a small team of three people in her Trust have ‘OMOP’d’ their healthcare data to enable operational improvement and access to research quality data. This has involved… |
| SAIL Databank | 2024 | Webinar | 00:30:52 | A talk from Ashley Akbari offering an overview of the SAIL Databank, how a TRE and linked data can be used in a multi-disciplinary team to support research and improve services and people’s outcomes, using examples from the One Wales collaboration response to the COVID-19 pandemic using the SAIL… |
| One Devon Dataset | 2024 | Webinar | 00:36:38 | A talk from Simon Chant from Devon County Council, introducing the One Devon Dataset, a linked dataset covering GP, secondary care, community health, mental health, social care and wider population data, that was established in 2020. 22 April 2024 |
| National Competency Framework for Health Data Analysts | 2024 | Webinar | 00:27:51 | A talk from Huw Davies, introduced by Louise Taylor from NHS Dorset. An overview of the National Competency Framework, and how it can be used within your organisation for recruitment, retention and team development. |
| Data Science in the NHS | 2024 | Webinar | 00:44:20 | A talk from PenCHORD’s Sammi Rosser discussing the opportunities and challenges of introducing data science and open methods within the NHS. 15 February 2024 |
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