What is Mental Health Data Science?
Mental Health Data Science is scientific discipline at the intersection of mental health, statistics, mathematics and computer science.
We apply cutting-edge analysis techniques to big data to try to understand more about psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression.
Why are we doing this research?
We believe that the more we can understand about the underlying basis of these conditions the better the overall outcomes will be for patients.
Who is involved?
Mental Health Data Science Scotland (MHDSS) is a collaboration between The University of Edinburgh, The University of Glasgow and The University of Aberdeen.
It funded by the UK Research and Innovation’s Medical Research Council Pathfinder Scheme and through a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award.
Things to know
- What are ‘data’ and ‘data linkage’?
- Why are we doing this research?
- What about security and privacy?
What do we hope to achieve?
Short-term goal
Our short-term goal is to link consented research studies and DNA data, with NHS records and administrative data to create a structured and secure dataset for studying the causes and consequences of psychiatric disorders.
Longer-term goal
Our longer goal terms goal is to implement this infrastructure across the whole of the UK.
Our vision
Our vision for UK health data science is to create a ‘Scandinavian-style’ research platform of exceptional depth and scale, where almost every NHS patient is a research participant.
Our ultimate hope
Our ultimate hope is to better understand the causes and consequences of common mental health conditions, so that new diagnostics and treatments can be developed, to improve the lives of people across the world.
Professor Andrew McIntosh introduces the University of Edinburgh section of the project: