Implementing a Nordic-Baltic Federated Health Data Network: a case report

TL;DR

This paper reports on the development of a federated health data network across Nordic-Baltic countries, highlighting technical feasibility and operational challenges in implementing cross-border health data collaboration.

Contribution

It presents a novel interdisciplinary approach to establishing a federated health data network across multiple countries, addressing privacy, legal, and technical challenges.

Findings

Network functions without significant performance loss

Interdisciplinary approaches aid in overcoming implementation challenges

Regulatory and operational hurdles remain significant

Abstract

Background: Centralized collection and processing of healthcare data across national borders pose significant challenges, including privacy concerns, data heterogeneity and legal barriers. To address some of these challenges, we formed an interdisciplinary consortium to develop a feder-ated health data network, comprised of six institutions across five countries, to facilitate Nordic-Baltic cooperation on secondary use of health data. The objective of this report is to offer early insights into our experiences developing this network. Methods: We used a mixed-method ap-proach, combining both experimental design and implementation science to evaluate the factors affecting the implementation of our network. Results: Technically, our experiments indicate that the network functions without significant performance degradation compared to centralized simu-lation. Conclusion: While use of interdisciplinary approaches holds a potential to solve challeng-es associated with establishing such collaborative networks, our findings turn the spotlight on the uncertain regulatory landscape playing catch up and the significant operational costs.