How can health data be processed securely, responsibly and at the same time made available for research? These questions were at the heart of a visit to Cologne by a high-level delegation from Taiwan. The guests included representatives of Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), Academia Sinica, the National Biobank Consortium of Taiwan and the National Institute of Cancer Research.

Alongside the experts from Taiwan, representatives of ZB MED, NFDI4Health, the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), the University Hospital Cologne and the University of Göttingen took part in the exchange.

The three-hour meeting focused on Truster Research Environments (TREs), health data management and the secure use of data für research. Discussions covered the development of secure and FAIR health data infrastructures, data governance, consent management, as well as interoperability standards such as HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) and OMOP (Obervational Medical Outcomes Partnership). The participants also exchanged experiences with distributed and federated approaches to data analysis. Particular attention was given to practical experience with TREs and controlled access to sensitive research data.

The discussions highlighted that many of the challenges involved in using health data are shared internationally. They also identified concrete opportunities for further collaboration. Both sides expressed particular interest in continued exchange on synthetic data, federaterd learning and data governance, as well as potential joint research projects.