Discovering
Safety is a programme of work delivered by the Health and
Safety Executive (HSE) and partners that uses data and analytical
techniques to provide new insights and approaches that will help to
reduce injuries and fatalities from workplace activity. Working
with Discovering Safety can open doors for start-up companies and
bring them together with new clients. That's the view of Kyle
Dupont CEO of Ohalo, the first winner of our Safetytech
Accelerator Challenge.
"Work on the
challenge has led to an ongoing relationship with HSE, new clients
in the UK and Ireland construction sectors and an ever-growing list
of sectors we operate in, including oil and gas, finance and
government," says Kyle.
The Challenge
In 2019, the Safetytech Accelerator Challenge was created as a
vehicle for bringing the worlds of data tech and traditional
industry together. With funding from
Lloyd's Register Foundation, the Accelerator offered winners
the chance to take part in a three-month pilot project (worth £25k
in research time) with Discovering Safety's data scientists and
partners from safety-critical industries. The Challenge was held as
a 'Dragon's Den'-style pitching competition and hosted online by Plug and
Play, who are based in the United States.
The Solution
Ohalo is a data tech company that helps organisations to
standardise how they store, analyse and share unstructured data. In
2017, they developed the Data X-Ray, a software product that helps
companies discover their data. The Safetytech Accelerator Challenge
was the perfect opportunity for Ohalo to apply the Data X-Ray in a
safety context and, as part of their pitch, they proposed to mine
HSE's vast collection of RIDDOR reports to extract intelligence and
identify trends.
Up until now one of the major barriers to sharing any sensitive
safety data found in RIDDOR reports has been the need to carefully
anonymise it by redaction. It's a prohibitively labour-intensive
task, fraught with the potential for error. The benefit of using
Ohalo's Data X-Ray technology is its ability to cut through mounds
of documents, anonymising them reliably, accurately and
speedily.
Ohalo anonymised 600,000 records in 1.4 days with 99% accuracy,
a task that would normally take 12.5 years. The trial has led to a
successful ongoing collaboration between Ohalo and HSE.
Steve Naylor, HSE Senior Scientist and Data Specialist, said:
"The principal driver was the aspiration to promote sharing of
health and safety data to stimulate innovation - and the major
barrier posed by the risk of breaching data protection legislation.
Ohalo won the challenge with their pitch to use their proprietary
software platform, Data X-Ray, as a starting point. We ran a pilot
project later in 2019 which successfully demonstrated proof of
concept."
The Outcome
Working with Discovering Safety has allowed Ohalo to expand
their client base and further develop the Data X-Ray. Since being
announced as winners, Ohalo has gone on to open a transatlantic
base in Atlanta, Georgia. They are now working to help companies in
construction, finance, oil and gas and many other sectors extract
intelligence from their safety data in order to improve health and
safety outcomes.
Kyle Dupont, co-founder and CEO of Ohalo, explained:
"We felt from the beginning that our technology could drive
real value in anonymising sensitive data from the safety and
accident reports that HSE manages, so that the anonymised records
can more easily be used by third parties to reduce accidents and
fatalities in the UK. However, it was a fairly high-risk
project and so the Safetytech Accelerator was the perfect vehicle
for HSE and Ohalo teams to work together, in iteratively improving
the algorithms to get to a point where HSE could use the
data.
Work on the challenge led to an ongoing partnership with two
construction companies based in the UK and Ireland, Costain and Wood
Group. It opened new doors and allowed us to meet new
clients and expand our reach,"
"We're also working with banks, governments, law enforcement
agencies and safety-critical industries such as the oil and gas
sectors on redaction, discovery, classification and records and
retention management." said Kyle.
"The great work
we did between us will hopefully change the lives of many workers
for the better."
If you're a start-up tech company or a company working in a
safety-critical area and you'd like to find out more about working
with Discovering Safety, contact: discoveringsafety@hse.gov.uk
To read more visit
the Discovering Safety Website