The recent pandemic has shown how the effective use of data can help fight diseases on a global scale, enabling clinicians, governments, epidemiologists and pharmaceutical companies to track emerging variants and design vaccines and medicines more effectively. The use of data in health research and clinical care has developed significantly in the last 10 years and holds enormous promise for the decade ahead, but what are the risks and challenges? Can better data sharing in the health sector drive innovation and save lives? The ODI’s Emma Thwaites looks at this with Ben Goldacre from Applied Data Science, and Lisa Allen, Director of Data and Services at the ODI.