Secondary Use of Health Data: Centralized Structure and Information Security Frameworks in Finland

TL;DR

This paper discusses Finland's innovative centralized framework and security measures for the secondary use of health data, enabling research and development while ensuring data protection.

Contribution

It presents a novel centralized structure and security framework for secondary health data use, including implementation details unique to Finland.

Findings

Established a pioneering legislative and institutional framework in Finland.

Developed technical solutions for secure centralized health data access.

Facilitated secondary health data use for research and development.

Abstract

The utilization of health data for secondary purposes, such as research, sta-tistics, and development, has become increasingly significant in advancing healthcare systems. To foster the above, Finland has established a framework for the secondary use of health and social data through legislative measures and the creation of specialized institutions, which are the first of their kind in the world. In this paper, we give an overview of our implementation for using secondary health and social data in a centralized fashion. As a technical contribution, we also address key implementation aspects related to implementing the framework.