Digital

Unlocking the Value of Linked NHS and Robotic Surgery Data

August 11, 2026 by deborahamzil No Comments | Category Data, Research Data Scotland, Unlocking the Value of Data

Blog post by Chris Bergin, Strategic Data Policy Adviser, Digital Citizen Division in the Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate

The Scottish Government’s ambition is to unlock the value of public sector personal data through secure and responsible innovation to improve outcomes for the people of Scotland.

The Unlocking the Value of Data (UVOD) programme was established to explore ways to derive greater value from these datasets and to support ethical, consistent decision-making by Scotland’s public sector where this data is used with, or by, the private sector. In all cases, this must be done in a way that commands public trust and is likely to generate meaningful public benefit.

As our previous blog highlighted, an Operational Framework was published in March, to support this aim. The Framework aims to create a more streamlined and effective approach to private sector access to public sector data in Scotland, helping to unlock the social, economic and environmental benefits of private sector research.

Building on its key role in developing the Framework, Research Data Scotland will lead its implementation and evaluation, ensuring it evolves to support Scotland’s data controller community.

The delivery of the Framework – the programme’s primary output – marks the completion of the UVOD programme. However, this is not the end of the journey.

Realising greater value from public sector-held datasets remains a priority for the Scottish Government. Work initiated through the programme will continue and it will remain grounded in the guiding principles recommended by our Independent Expert Group.

Having established strong foundations, we want to enable better use of industry-generated data by the public sector and create pathways for trusted commercial partners to safely test and deploy AI-driven innovations, within a secure environment, while maintaining public trust, transparency and control.

A new project, called RoboSCOT, will help to advance these aims.

RoboSCOT will build on Scotland’s investment in robotic-assisted surgery across NHS Scotland. NHS Scotland holds longitudinal clinical, cancer, hospital, prescribing, laboratory, mortality, and service-use data. Intuitive Surgical systems generate detailed robotic console and system data during operations.

The project will adapt existing infrastructure through the Seer platform to securely link NHS Scotland data with this robotic surgery data to improve surgical and patient outcomes, and service efficiency. This work will initially be focused on cancer surgery.

The Scottish Government has commissioned Public Services Delivery Scotland to lead this initiative, with support from University of Edinburgh.

This project has the potential to deliver a range of public benefits, including improved patient outcomes through better understanding of complications, recovery pathways, and variation in surgical care; greater system efficiency; and strengthened national capability, supporting Scotland’s investment in robotic surgery and the NHS Scotland’s ability to evaluate complex technologies using linked real-world data.

Anchored in responsible data use and public trust, RoboSCOT will be evaluated to determine whether this governance and delivery model can be used, or adapted, for future public-private sector collaborations.

This is our ambition. In the meantime, we hope this project will generate high-value insights that help answer questions which neither the public sector nor industry can address alone.

Tags: Data, Independent Expert Group, Public Services Delivery Scotland, Research Data Scotland

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