Five minute profile: interview with Sophie McCall

What’s your role at RDS and what does your typical workday involve?

I am a Senior Data Analyst at RDS, responsible for the curation of data within the ADR Scotland (Administrative Data Research Scotland) programme. This involves developing code, processes and quality measures to manage the update of datasets to make them ready and usable for researchers. I am also involved with the development of synthetic datasets within RDS – more coding!

A great part of RDS is its commitment to the environment and sustainability – I am a member of the ‘Green Team’ and am developing ways to use data and analysis to better understand our current carbon footprint and ways in which we can improve it.

What's your background and how does it give you additional insight into your work at RDS?

I started out as a Biomedical Scientist, mostly working within Blood Transfusion, Tissue Typing and Stem Cell Transplantation in a variety of NHS clinical laboratories. About 5 years ago I made a career change into data analysis in the NHS where I was able to use my understanding of laboratory testing to develop ways of triaging patients waiting for outpatient appointments depending on their test results, meaning that those who really needed to be seen by a consultant could be seen quicker.

After a few years working in the lab, and the incompatibility of managing shifts with childcare, I decided to switch roles into data analysis. I first taught myself R using a variety of online courses and then SQL, and used both to extract and analyse data to bring insight into healthcare related scenarios.

I believe that really understanding and getting to know data is just as important as knowing how to manipulate and analyse it. This became apparent in the early days of the pandemic, when I was the only one in the team who understood what PCR testing was!

Other values from the NHS which I have taken forward into RDS are the concepts of quality and the importance of information governance. When I am coding, I always make sure there are ‘quality checks’ throughout it and my focus is to make sure the datasets and analysis I produce are both accurate and reproducible. And - I always remember that each CHI or other identifier represents a patient or individual person: it is important to consider each piece of data as information that belongs to someone, making sure to respect their right to privacy and dignity.

What's a highlight and a challenge of working with data?

As a Senior Data Analyst, I am really excited by the opportunity to develop our team of Data Analysts. To be an excellent analyst, you need more than just coding skills – it's about finding the key piece of information, which is often well hidden in data, and then being able to communicate this. 

What difference do you hope RDS will make?

Bringing together multiple datasets on a national level. The Regional Safe Havens in Scotland are doing great work in looking at data innovatively on a local level, but there are some things which need larger volumes of data, and/or a wider range of data sets. I am also really interested in the development of laboratory datasets for use and linkage with other datasets, and I am keen to get involved with the work which RDS is supporting in the Health Informatics Centre (HIC) at the University of Dundee to develop a Scottish National Laboratory Dataset.

What would be your "Mastermind" specialist subject?

Train timetables.

Who, real-life or public figure, has inspired or motivated you in your career or life?

I was really inspired by ‘Travelling Tabby’ – real name John, who as a student from Highland and Islands University developed a Coronavirus Tracker during the pandemic. He communicated a huge range of publicly available data in a way that was interactive, understandable and useful – it was my go-to resource for finding out what was happening with regards to infection, testing and vaccination. Not only this, but he did it for his own interest and public benefit, updating and refreshing his site pretty much every day. In 2022, at age 26, he received an MBE from the Queen – amazing!

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Don’t be afraid to speak out. Which I do regularly.