Health Information Research Unit (HIRU), Swansea University

The Health Information Research Unit (HIRU) for Wales is an initiative developed by Swansea University. The main aim of HIRU is to realise the potentialof electronically held,person based,routinely collected information for the purposes ofconducting and supporting health related research. HIRU works collaboratively withresearchers and service professionals to conduct and support research and to improveservice delivery.The core of HIRU's work is data linkage: bringing together person-level data drawn fromoperational and national systems and,using a novel anonymisation process,linking datasetstogether to form a rich information base. HIRU has established the Secure AnonymisedInformation Linkage (SAIL) system with over 5 billion anonymised person-based records,representing a valuable and unique resource for researchers.HIRU works closely with the West Wales registered clinical trials unit (UKCRC Clinical Research Collaboration no. 50).