A pioneering data space and governance framework for the secure and compliant exchange of health data launched in Luxembourg in the first half of 2024. Funded by the Luxembourgish Ministry of the Economy, the first-of-its-kind pioneering project holds high hopes of revolutionising the landscape of healthcare provision – and reinforcing key EU strategies for a common dataspace in the digital age.
The need for a data-driven health ecosystem
In recent years, data has become a gamechanger in the healthcare sector, bringing a range of challenging aspects like patients’ rights, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and regulations like GDPR to the very forefront. In Luxembourg, the D4H project aims to address a well-known existing fragmentation within healthcare: data there is often siloed and under-utilised, hampering the Grand Duchy’s ambitions for innovation and research.
The Dataspace 4 Health is the product of numerous collaborative efforts between public bodies, social partners, and industry representatives and is fully aligned with national and European digital strategies. Key actors in the Luxembourg ICT and healthcare field (NTT Data Group, Hôpitaux Robert Schuman (HRS), Luxembourg National Data Service (LNDS), University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), and Agence eSanté) are responsible for implementing the project, which is co-financed by Ministry of Economy of Luxembourg as part of Luxembourg’s national Gaia-X strategy.
D4H provides a use-case driven ecosystem (starting with diabetes and oncology) to pave the way for future applications in other healthcare areas.
Tackling society’s most pressing health challenges: zooming in on diabetes & cancer
Grounded in its goal to bring tangible benefits to some of the most pressing diseases looming over an increasingly-digital society, D4H’s use cases (the initial phase of the project) focused on diabetes and cancer.
Around half a billion people from all over the world are diagnosed with diabetes – and this number is expected to increase to 783 million by 2045. Add to this the diverse nature of the disease itself: different types of diabetes can cause different complications – requiring individualised care, and the picture gets more and more complex.
AI is not just seen as a potential technology to improve this outlook: if deployed and used right, it could revolutionise diabetes treatment as we know it – and facilitate efforts of healthcare professionals in the field to a ground-breaking extent. In 1 of the use cases piloted by the D4H project, an AI-based decision-making system used thousands of anonymised patient records (digital twins) from the Luxembourgish Institute of Health (LIH), successfully tailoring treatment based on individual needs.
Cancer – the second challenge the project chose to address in its pilot set of use cases – is the second leading cause of death in many countries all over the world, preceded only by cardiovascular disease. Treatment success rates widely vary, and many actors are part of the life-and-death game: while hospitals are in charge of diagnosis and therapy, it is researches that bring novel solutions, treatment options, and insights to the oncology field.
The aim? Implementing a precision, state-of-the-art oncology program, together with a federated data architecture that enables data interoperability and facilitates data exchange between healthcare professionals, providers, and researchers.
Dataspace 4 Health: a stellar approach to health in a new age
The project aims to improve levels of patient care in Luxembourg and beyond. By enabling secure data exchange between healthcare institutions (100% GDPR-compliant), its ultimate goal is to spearhead innovation and foster more research links, whilst simultaneously guaranteeing patients’ rights. Another goal is exploring and bringing to life new medical treatments through the use of data and AI.
Dataspace 4 Health relies on a decentralised data infrastructure, facilitating the sharing and analysis of information while ensuring its confidentiality and security. This initiative is in line with the European Union’s efforts to create interoperable and sovereign data spaces on a continental scale, envisioned in the European Strategy for Data.
Dataspace 4 Health represents a major step forward for the healthcare sector in Luxembourg. By promoting a collaborative and secure environment for data, this project supports high-quality research and healthcare. It demonstrates Luxembourg’s commitment to integrating state-of-the-art technologies to improve the efficiency and quality of health services, while respecting the highest standards of personal data protection.
Find out more about the D4H project
Dare to dream about the same future of healthcare that the Dataspace 4 Health project in Luxembourg imagines, and find the newest updates and activities around the ecosystem on the project’s official webpage.
Image credits: Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH)