Data driven healthcare: How PwC is working with Palantir to deliver better care for patients

“The ability to act on data is quickly becoming a strong marker of success,” says India Hardy, Health Services Sector Leader, PwC UK. “In healthcare, data has become critical infrastructure, switching the industry from analogue to digital ways of working.”

That’s one of the reasons PwC expanded its strategic alliance with Palantir, a leading software provider that powers real-time, AI-driven decisions. Underpinned by a multi-year, multi-million-pound investment by PwC, the firms aim to deliver advanced AI and data solutions to tackle some of the world’s most complex challenges.

The alliance demonstrates a shift in how business transformation is delivered, combining Palantir’s data and AI capabilities with PwC’s deep sector expertise and execution strength.

Turning data into better patient outcomes

Healthcare is primed to benefit from the strategic partnership. Rising demand and constrained funding is putting continued pressure on already stretched systems. "A challenge for the healthcare sector is the fragmentation of its data. It's not the lack of data, far from it - but the inability to connect and integrate that data, to create the single version of the truth that everyone has confidence in, and to generate the trusted insight that informs decisions," says Stephen Childs, Head of Health Partnerships at Palantir.

When coupled with rising patient expectations that those who provide care should have the necessary access to data to optimise treatment, the challenge is becoming more acute.

"Once we're able to harness the data, standardise the way it is recorded and stored, and thereby create the conditions by which innovative digital solutions can be safely deployed at scale, we will enable healthcare professionals to deliver even better healthcare outcomes for patients, even more cost effectively," continues Childs.

The test for the partnership is real-world applications. “We’re the bridge between the technology and how it can improve day-to-day operations. Ultimately, it’s there to improve patient outcomes and save costs,” says Alpesh Shah, Health Analytics Partner, PwC UK.

This makes the delivery and roll-out of Palantir’s data systems and technology critical. As David Morris, Healthcare Partner, PwC UK points out: “there’s no point having technology in place if it’s not telling the client something useful or adding value.”

Delivering NHS England's Federated Data Platform

When NHS England awarded the contract to Palantir and its consortia partners, including PwC for support to develop and roll-out its Federated Data Platform (FDP), an outcomes-led approach was developed to deliver improvements in patient care, focusing on system efficiency.

The NHS FDP is a software platform, bringing together operational data stored across multiple systems, such as clinician availability and waiting lists, and crucially keeps the data in full control of the individual participating NHS organisations through a federated architecture. This is made possible through the interoperable data infrastructure provided by Palantir Foundry, with the technology integrating and providing tools for complex data analysis at scale.

Through one of the NHS FDP's products, the Referral to Treatment (RTT) validation tool, waiting lists are now managed more accurately, ensuring patients are seen in the right order. This single source of query-able data gives a unified view of waiting lists and a standardised approach to ensuring patients receive care.

The ambition is to continue to drive speed and productivity for the NHS through AI augmentation. "As the technology evolves, the applications for the NHS are really exciting," says Morris.

From dashboards to decisions and outcomes

PwC plays a central role in rolling-out the FDP to the NHS workforce through its programme execution function. This provides strategic oversight including mobilisation, delivery, adoption and benefits realisation across the system.

"The scale of the project is what makes it so complex," explains Morris. "The roll-out is at a local, regional and national level, to thousands of users."

The team provides on the ground support, hosting live demos and workshops for NHS trust staff using the platform including clinicians, administrators and management teams. Through digital tools within the platform, teams are also able to view, update and track milestones and progress within a single dashboard, speeding up collaboration and decision making.

The NHS reports that real term benefits have already been delivered. Around 100,000 additional patients have undergone procedures in theatres up to September 2025, compared with the previous period without NHS FDP use. And patients are getting home faster, with a 12.4% drop in the average number of ‘delay days’ – when a medically fit patient who has been in hospital for more than 7 days can’t be discharged from hospital due to issues like care home availability, transport, or paperwork delays.

An intention to scale

"The potential applications for healthcare – where governance, trust and adoption are critical – are really powerful," says PwC's Shah.

Shah believes that the innovations proven in one system can be adapted, not reinvented, ensuring capability and best practice can be applied to benefit other healthcare systems – and those beyond the health and public sector – in the future.

Identifying where data and AI can genuinely add value is integral to PwC and Palantir's outcomes-led approach. "Often the data already exists," says Morris. "We see it as the foundational infrastructure, and once organised it can then be combined with advanced platforms like Palantir Foundry and AIP to deliver change, and that's where we come in."