Solid Symposium 2023

Session: Health Care

Thursday, March 30, 2023 (14:00 to 17:30)

Effects of decentralised health data in society, politics and EU data initiatives

Both in the EU and at national level, there has long been a debate about whether decentralised or centralised data storage solutions are the most efficient and reliable method of storing patient data. During the COVID-19 pandemics, this discussion has been more relevant due to the potential impact that COVID-19 tracking apps based on centralised architectures could have on citizens' privacy, as they have the potential to be transformed into surveillance tools. For this reason, many organisations, such as the German Chaos Computer Club, recommended decentralised data storage solutions for every COVID-19 app used in the German market German Chaos Computer Club, recommended decentralised data storage solutions for every COVID-19 app used in the German market.

While decentralised solutions like Solid offer several benefits, such as data protection, flexibility, software agnosticism, and data interoperability, they also present major challenges, such as shifting responsibility for data management from large organisations (e.g., health centres) to individuals. In addition, decentralised data initiatives contrast with initiatives such as the EU Data Health Space, which aims to have a single and interoperable health data repository across the EU. The aim of this session is to discuss challenges and opportunities of data decentralisation, and how decentralised health data stores, such as Solid, could be a useful alternative for patients and doctors as well as healthcare facilities.

Invited speakers and program

In a second session we deal with Health Data Management Applications with Solid.

Detailed Agenda

Detailed agenda, abstracts and speaker bios:

  • Click here for the detailed agenda.
  • Slides

  • A citizen-driven ecosystem for personal health data
  • Made in and for Europe: Data Spaces, Gaia-X and the EHDS Regulation Proposal
  • Health - Conventions - Digitization: The trap between market and civic solutions for health data