Privacy-First Research with OpenSAFELY • Eli Holderness & Hannes Lowette

This interview was recorded for GOTO Unscripted. https://gotopia.tech Read the full transcription of this interview here Eli Holderness - Research Software Advocate at Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Speaker & Professional Nerd Hannes Lowette - Principal Consultant at Axxes, Monolith Advocate, Speaker & Whiskey Lover RESOURCES Eli https://bsky.app/profile/eli.holderness.dev https://twitter.com/eliholderness https://hachyderm.io/@eli https://linkedin.com/in/eli-holderness-4890b886 https://github.com/eli-miriam https://eli.holderness.dev Hannes https://bsky.app/profile/hanneslowette.net https://twitter.com/hannes_lowette https://github.com/Belenar https://linkedin.com/in/hanneslowette Links https://www.opensafely.org https://docs.opensafely.org/ehrql https://github.com/opensafely-core/ehrql DESCRIPTION OpenSAFELY represents a revolutionary approach to medical research that prioritizes patient privacy while enabling valuable insights from healthcare data. Rather than giving researchers direct access to sensitive GP records, it allows them to submit code that runs in a secure environment, with only privacy-checked aggregated results returned. Hannes Lowette talks to Eli Holderness about how the system works, its benefits for ensuring reproducible science, the challenges of working with data not collected for research purposes, and its potential applications beyond healthcare. The approach balances the need for medical research with strict privacy protections, ensuring patients maintain trust in how their sensitive data is used. RECOMMENDED BOOKS Ben Goldacre • Bad Science Ben Goldacre • Bad Pharma Aaron Parecki • OAuth 2.0 Simplified Aaron Parecki • OAuth 2.0 Servers Erdal Ozkaya • Cybersecurity: The Beginner"s Guide Saleem Siddiqui • Learning Test-Driven Development Jacqui Read • Communication Patterns Bluesky Twitter Instagram LinkedIn Facebook CHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUS Join this channel to get early access to videos & other perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/join Looking for a unique learning experience? Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.tech SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted daily!