01 May

|Charities and Nonprofits, Microsoft

British Heart Foundation harness the power of Data Science to drive its mission

Today, Data Transformation specialists Simpson Associates announced a collaboration with the British Heart Foundation (BHF), the UK’s leading charity tackling heart and circulatory diseases. This partnership aims to explore the power of Data Science for the BHF; revolutionising the way they utilise their data, unlocking hidden insights and unleashing a world of possibilities.

“Data is one of the most valuable assets in our mission” says Mary O’Callaghan, Director of Technology (Medical) at the British Heart Foundation. “By partnering with Simpson Associates and their next generation knowledge, we are opening a world of possibilities when it comes to guiding our decisions. This has the potential to transform efficiency, precision, and strategic data-driven choices, enhancing our mission”. Mary O’Callaghan, Director of Technology (Medical) at the British Heart Foundation

Building a Data Science Environment for positive impact  

The collaboration focuses on delivering a Databricks based Data Science Environment (DSE) deployed on Microsoft Azure. The DSE will create a living data ecosystem for the BHF’s Medical Directorate data insights and analytics, providing their Health Insights team with a platform to explore and deliver impactful insights tailored to different business functions.

Featuring a robust and comprehensive design, the platform will ingest, process, store and integrate structured and unstructured data from internal BHF sources, along with external NHS health and demographic data sources. This centralised platform will allow a variety of stakeholders to access and leverage data assets for a variety of use cases.

To overcome the challenges of cross-department collaboration, the platform enables all users to work within a single unified environment, eliminating localised analytics silos. This facilitates collaboration, allowing the data science team and business intelligence functions to work together and rapidly develop new use cases on a common, trusted data platform.

The platform will ultimately drive positive outcomes by: 

  • Enabling efficient use of advanced techniques like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to analyse large datasets to explore nuances of heart disease.
  • Integrating with visualisation tools such as Power BI, to create reliable and repeatable reporting for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and programme attribution.
  • Empowering the BHF to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of their engagements such as RevivR, a mobile app developed to teach the basics of CPR in 15 minutes, across different themes and use the insights to make better decisions to encourage increased participation.

Tom Hughes Account Director – Simpson Associates says, “We’re proud to be the BHF’s strategic partner in their data science transformation. This is only the beginning for them, and I cannot wait to see what they can achieve for those impacted by heart disease.”

About the British Heart Foundation    

It is only with donations from the public that the BHF can keep its life saving research going. Help us turn science fiction into reality. With donations from the public, the BHF funds ground-breaking research that will get us closer than ever to a world free from the fear of heart and circulatory diseases. A world where broken hearts are mended, where millions more people survive a heart attack, where the number of people dying from or disabled by a stroke is slashed in half. A world where people affected by heart and circulatory diseases get the support they need. And a world of cures and treatments we can’t even imagine today. Find out more at bhf.org.uk

About Simpson Associates

Simpson Associates is the go-to data transformation partner, specialising in Data Analytics, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Managed Data Services. They help organisations from both the public and private sector to gain valuable insights from their data and make better informed decisions.

Their data and performance management solutions enable forward-thinking organisations understand and resolve some of the most complex and common challenges. They are a Microsoft Solutions Partner, holding the Analytics on Microsoft Azure Specialisation and a Migrate Enterprise Applications to Microsoft Azure Specialisation, as well as Solutions Partner designations in Data & AI (Azure); Digital & App Innovation (Azure); and Infrastructure (Azure). We are also a Databricks partner.