BLOG – Keeping data closed enough for citizen security, but open enough for research

The balance to be met is to keep data closed enough for citizen protection, but open enough for research. This means achieving an ethical balance, avoiding any harm to the patient, while doing societal good in research. The use of federated data networks, such as EHDEN, implicitly protect patient data by keeping data local, behind local firewalls and approval processes, inclusive of local consent requirements, whilst aggregating population-level information, not patient-level data from analysis. This is privacy by design.