The NHS deserves better use of hospital medicines data

Ben Goldacre and Brian MacKenna argue that hospital medicines data has huge potential to improve patient care and that its use for public good is being blocked by cultural, contractual, and political barriers, rather than technical complexity In 2016-17 the NHS in England spent £17.4bn (€19.1bn; $21.4bn) on medicines,1 approximately 14% of the entire NHS budget. Expenditure on medicines has…