On Friday 27th April, Dexter and the West Midlands Secure Data Environment hosted a Datathon at The Exchange in Birmingham. The event brought together data scientists, healthcare professionals, and patient representatives from across the region to showcase the capabilities of Dexter and the progress achieved to date. Using both acute and maternal care data, Dexter demonstrated how research tasks that would traditionally take months can be significantly accelerated.

During the day, attendees were divided into groups and tasked with developing four research questions, two focused on maternal care and two on acute care. Each group created a high-level protocol, learned how to define phenotypes, and collaborated with analysts to execute the studies. Remarkably, all four research questions were addressed within a single day, spanning protocols from risk prediction to pharmacoepidemiology. These studies are now being refined, with the aim of progressing towards publication.

The Datathon highlighted what is possible with real-world data in secondary care, demonstrating how Dexter can rapidly scale research and support more accessible, data-driven insights. We are excited to continue building on this collaboration and to further unlock the value of health data in the West Midlands. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making the event a success, stay tuned for future updates.