Health Data Sharing for Secondary Use: a Critical Overview

Data has been playing a crucial rule in healthcare. Its digitisation and exchange have improved the delivery of healthcare to patients and fostered scientific research. However handling the workflow and governance of such data is not a trivial matter, due to legal and technical barriers. The aim of this paper is to explore existing health data sharing schemes to identify trends and desiderata for a hypothetical system that meets the legal requirements for handling data for scientific research. This discussion highlights the importance of interoperability to address the fragmented nature of data and emphasises the need for data owners' autonomy and empowerment, alongside technical trends that can help achieve these goals.