Every day, scientists around the world are exploring innovative treatments for numerous diseases. Their research relies on large and increasingly complex datasets, which hold significant potential for advancing medicine and healthcare. Given the highly confidential nature of the personal data they handle, researchers must take special precautions to ensure ethical use and compliance with privacy laws. The challenge is: how can these data provide maximum benefits while minimising the risks for patients and data providers?
The SPHN (Swiss Personalised Health Network) initiative, launched in 2017, aims to make patient data from Switzerland’s five university hospitals available for national research. BioMed IT, a network for exchanging health data for research purposes in Switzerland, provides researchers with a secure environment for processing sensitive data.
The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) is responsible for the technical implementation of this initiative. BioMedIT benefits from SIB’s technical expertise, built on decades of experience in bioinformatics infrastructures. To expand and implement the BioMedIT Portal, SIB enlisted the expertise of Karakun.