Connected South Yorkshire (ConSY): Understanding your regional health care database
We're working in partnership with the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (SY-ICB) to build Connected South Yorkshire (ConSY). ConSY is a health and social care data resource designed to support medical research, and deliver better health outcomes for everyone living in South Yorkshire.
Where does the data come from?
Healthcare information is created every time you visit a hospital, see your GP, or interact with local social care services. Normally, these records sit in separate systems.
ConSY safely links these different pieces of health and social care information together. By looking at the bigger picture - rather than isolated medical visits - approved researchers and health professionals can better understand patient care journeys, identify local health needs, and design more effective health services.
How is the data protected?
ConSY is built around the Five Safes framework, a set of safeguards that ensures data is managed responsibly:
- Safe people: Only authorised people can handle the data, and only trained, approved researchers can ask to access it.
- Safe projects: Every research project must clearly benefit the public, passing strict checks on ethics, privacy, and data security.
- Safe settings: Data is never downloaded onto personal computers. It can only be analysed within secure, highly protected digital environments (such as the University of Sheffield Secure Data Service or the SY-ICB Data Service).
- Safe data: Before researchers see the data, we remove personal details like your name, address, NHS number, and exact date of birth so you cannot be directly identified. This is called 'pseudonymisation'.
- Safe outputs: All research findings, statistics, and reports are thoroughly checked before publication to ensure no individual can be identified.
How is the data used?
Researchers use ConSY to evaluate how well health services are working, study disease patterns, and find new ways to prevent and treat illnesses in our region. Commercial companies or unauthorised third parties cannot freely access this data.
How can I opt out?
If you are happy for your de-identified health records to be used for research you don't need to do anything. However, you can choose to opt out at any time to stop your data from being used.
- National Data Opt-Out: You can set or change your opt-out preference at any time. Find out how to opt out of sharing your health records. Please note that even if you opt out, your data may still be used in a few specific situations.
- Privacy notices: Detailed information about how health data is collected, stored, and processed across the region is made publicly available by local NHS trusts and the SY-ICB. You can read the SY-ICB privacy notice on their website.
Get in touch
If you have questions about ConSY you can email dataconnect@sheffield.ac.uk