Neil White is a Senior Statistician in the Scottish Government’s Health and Social Care Analytical Services Division, jointly heading up the Population Health Unit.

He has worked in Scottish Government analytical services for over 20 years, covering areas such as justice, education, finance, economy, agriculture & environment and health & social care.

"Data linkage is important to me because it can be used to improve processes and procedures and can enhance our ability to report and respond to situations. Data linkage can also allow new insights by bringing together data sources to reveal different perspectives that we may not have otherwise seen whilst looking at the data in isolation. This increases our understanding of particular situations or topics and helps us drive decisions to improve people’s lives. One example of how data linkage has made a real difference to people’s lives is the Scottish Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest project.

The ADR Scotland partnership has a key role in bringing together data linkage specialists from the Scottish Government and academic researchers to help maximise the use and utility of linked data."