Quality Assurance Framework for Data Linkage

This project aims to create, test, and distribute a quality assurance framework for data linkage to ensure robust, transparent and auditable results.

Data Linkage is a business-critical process within many government organisations, including NHS England. Research publications, official statistics, but also many direct care applications depend on data linkage. Its importance is further amplified when considering privacy preserving principles that require to minimise the use of patients' personal identifiable information. Consequently, data linkage is initiated early in the data lifecycle, establishing a substantial reliance of downstream applications on the quality of the linkage process.

However, too often data linkage is seen as an exclusive software development and data engineering exercise instead of a modelling challenge, and there is not an appropriate level of quality assurance applied at the different stages of the process. This is why we have worked on the Quality Assurance Framework for Data Linkage, which is a tool for data linkage practitioners to determine the necessary quality assurance levels at every stage of the data linkage process:

The required level of quality assurance varies by project and is determined by the data linker and data users. The triage questions in the framework provide a structured approach to deciding the minimum expected levels by type of project.

The Quality Assurance Framework guides stakeholders to make well-informed choices based on a clear understanding of potential risks and benefits. Additionally, it can be used as a detailed record-keeping tool that helps evaluate and manage data linkage project aspects.

Reach out to the Data Linkage Hub if you want to contribute to this project.

Output	Link
Quality Assurance Framework	Find the website here