Portland recently partnered with Understanding Patient Data (UPD) to analyse how media, social platforms and AI-powered search results are shaping public understanding of health data use. Building on our original 2021 report, this project explores how the communications landscape has evolved post-pandemic, during a period of significant NHS data reform.
Why now?
As health data becomes increasingly central to NHS transformation, understanding the narratives influencing public confidence, and ultimately behaviours, is important for policymakers, health leaders and technology providers.
Our approach
Our analysis brings together multiple evidence sources: 1,329 media articles across national, trade, campaigning and tech outlets; social listening data from X, Reddit, TikTok and other platforms; analysis of how leading AI models present patient data information; and public attitudes polling. Together, this provides a picture of not just what is being said about health data, but where, by whom, and how it shapes public behaviour.
Key insights
- The debate has shifted from data potential to trust. Discussion is increasingly driven by governance, privacy, commercial involvement and transparency rather than the technical use of patient data. It centres on concerns of power – who can be trusted to access data and who benefits from its use, with much of the underlying public goodwill from the pandemic having dissipated over time.
- Risk narratives travel further than benefit stories. Positive reporting exists but is largely confined to specialist audiences, while audiences are 110x more likely to encounter risk-led narratives, which have substantially greater reach across mainstream and social media.
- AI presents a new opportunity. Large language models are so far generally providing balanced, evidence-based information on patient data use. Ensuring authoritative content remains visible and discoverable through AI-powered search is ever more important.
Read the full reports to explore the findings in more detail:
- UPD’s first State of the Nation report: Understanding Patient Data in 2026: navigating public confidence in a changing health data system
- Health data in the headlines: a changing media landscape (2026)
