Sharing health data will promote innovation

A digital platform has been developed with support from Vinnova for secure sharing and use of diabetes data. In 2021, an innovation competition will be held, where the competitors will solve challenges in the field of diabetes by using the platform.

A challenge and important focus for the investment, which is called Winter, is to create conditions for so-called interoperability. It is about making health data available by having different systems communicate with each other, both technically and semantically.

- There is a lot of data that can not be used because it is locked in different systems that do not work together. The purpose of this investment is to see how privacy-sensitive data can be shared and used frictionlessly, says Cassandra Marshall who works with the investment in Vinnova.

- We have chosen to start with the diabetes area because there are already individuals in demand and companies that develop services to, for example, keep track of diet, exercise and better control blood sugar levels and insulin dosage.

In the innovation competition, it is planned for several competition categories that meet different types of challenges. It can be about both services that can be used by the individual and innovative solutions that are useful in health care. The data in question can, for example, be data from patient records.

The winners of the competition will be crowned at an event in December.

- The winning entry receives exposure to relevant actors and authorities and the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to obtain a service. Everyone who participates in the competition gets access and is given the opportunity to test and develop their ideas, says Cassandra Marshall.

More areas

The purpose of the pilot project is to see how privacy-sensitive data can be shared in a simpler way, something that in the future can also be used in completely different areas to facilitate innovation. For example, data relating to personal finance for the development of financial services.

The challenge is partly about technology, that different IT systems cannot talk to each other, but also that, for example, different concepts are used in different data sources. Responsibility issues, security and integrity also play a major role.

- The public sector handles large amounts of data that need to be protected, but should also be interchangeable. To achieve this, several authorities need to cooperate on national frameworks and guidelines. The goal of our effort is to also create an arena for it, says Cassandra Marshall.

About the investment

Within the initiative Winter - We win interoperability, a platform for secure sharing and use of data on diabetes has been developed, HOPE Databroker. The platform has been developed in collaboration between several parties under the leadership of ADDI Medical AB.
The innovation competition where the platform will be used will open for registration on April 27 in connection with a kick-off for the initiative. There is already a Facebook grouplinked to the competition where you can follow and participate in discussions about everything from data sharing of privacy-sensitive data to interoperability and solutions that make a difference for people with diabetes.