Health data represents real people... Starlight with Christie Brooks

Christie Brooks is the Chief Data Officer at Arcturis, a fast-growing company transforming how real-world data is used in pharmaceutical development and healthcare innovation. With a background that blends law, commercial strategy, and health data, she brings a rare perspective to digital innovation in the NHS. We spoke with Christie about her career, the proudest moments in healthcare, and the innovations she believes will shape the future.

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Tell us about your role

As Chief Data Officer, I’m responsible for everything related to how Arcturis accesses and uses health data. That includes ethics and governance, public and patient involvement, contracting with NHS trusts and academic partners, and managing our research agreements. I also oversee how data is organised and delivered to the company. It’s a broad remit spanning ethics, compliance, technical processes, and stakeholder relationships but that’s exactly what I love about it.

My route here wasn’t linear. I originally began training as a lawyer in Johannesburg, but my father’s cancer diagnosis brought me back to the UK. That moment changed everything. I began working for Oxford University Hospitals, and began to explored ways the NHS could benefit from research, innovation and commercial use of its data. I worked with University of Oxford and the Trust to rethink their framework for Intellectual Property and commercial data use.

That experience deepened when I began working with Professor Jim Davies and Kerrie Woods to expand the OUH clinical data warehouse to service more commercial and innovation data requirements, which they then took forward to become the foundations for the incredible data resource that is the Thames Valley and Surrey Secure Data Environment. Eventually, I joined Sensyne Health, a company with promising data assets but a challenging operational environment. When it became clear that a new approach was needed, I helped transition the vision into what is now Arcturis. Under Alex Snow’s leadership, we’ve sharpened our focus on real-world data and evidence, and built a company around that mission.

Describe a moment when you felt proud to work in healthcare

There have been many, but one that stands out is when we used anonymised real-world NHS data to support the approval of a new drug for multiple myeloma. The data came directly from patients undergoing treatment in today’s NHS, and resulted in the approval of a transformative new drug for patients who previously had no other treatment options.

It’s easy to talk about data in abstract terms, but every data point represents a real person - often during some of the most vulnerable moments in their life. Being able to take that lived experience and translate it into something that directly improves patient outcomes... that’s incredibly meaningful. It’s a full-circle moment where innovation meets impact.

What surprises you about your work?

Honestly, I’m surprised daily. I get to work with some of the country’s leading NHS trusts - UCLH, Cambridge, GOSH, Guys and Tommies, Oxford just to mention a few - and the calibre of thinking is exceptional. These teams bring such diverse perspectives to the table, often highlighting challenges or possibilities I hadn’t considered.

That multidisciplinary lens which combines clinicians, data scientists, and researchers is constantly refreshing. Yes, the NHS has structural challenges, but it’s also home to some of the most creative and forward-thinking minds in healthcare. Tapping into that collective brilliance is a privilege.

How would you improve healthcare?

I believe data is the key. A joined-up, standardised data infrastructure has the power to transform both care and research. I’m encouraged by emerging policy around a Single Patient Record. If done well, it could enable the kind of continuity that’s been missing.

One frustration I often hear is, “the data isn’t joined up.” But in research, it often can be. At Arcturis, we have already built systems that can normalise and standardise data effectively from across multiple systems and health care settings. I would want to leverage the learnings from data for research to rise to the challenge of translating that into the care environment.

Another issue is that the NHS doesn’t always have a clear baseline. In research, we’re meticulous about measurement and impact evaluation. But in frontline services, the lack of baseline data can make change feel risky, even when the real risk lies in inaction. Stronger data foundations would help the NHS understand, quantify, and justify change more confidently.

What’s a common myth or misunderstanding about digital & data in healthcare?

One of the biggest myths is that a single, common data model will fix everything. There’s this unicorn idea that if we just standardise all the data, everything will magically align.

But when you reduce data to only what’s consistently collectable, you lose richness and context. Models like OMOP are excellent for the right use cases, however they’re not universal solutions. We risk throwing out valuable nuance in the name of uniformity. Standardisation must be purposeful, not blanket.

Which innovation in health or care are you most excited about, and why?

While the term “AI” gets thrown around a lot, sometimes too much, I’m still genuinely excited about its potential. Yes, there’s hype, but there’s also real, practical progress happening beneath the surface.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is especially promising, and agentic AI could play a vital role in streamlining data preparation and process management. These aren’t headline-grabbing robots: they’re tools that can meaningfully reduce the burden on healthcare staff and improve decision-making.

The danger is that we become too cynical and dismiss the potential of AI entirely. Yes, not all AI is gold, but there are nuggets of genuine innovation that could fundamentally reshape how we handle health data.

One book, podcast, or person you’d recommend to others?

I really enjoyed a recent talk by Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, at Stanford. He talks about how success doesn’t just come from talent or opportunity, but from resilience, pain, and failure.

It resonated deeply with me. We often celebrate expertise but overlook the grit required to make a real-world impact. Failure isn’t just inevitable. It’s part of the process. That perspective is especially relevant in innovation-driven fields like healthcare and data science.