The PHEMS project consortium led by Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) will advance data-driven research and innovation activities in pediatrics and the use of privacy-preserving datasets in Europe. The project’s aim is to overcome important barriers that currently hinder cross-border collaboration on health data by developing and validating a decentralized federated health data ecosystem. This will enable an ecosystem without central data repositories or release of sensitive personal health data from hospitals. The proposal preparation was supported by Spinverse.
The PHEMS project aims to enable European collaboration on health data by aligning ethical and legal requirements of leading European pediatric hospitals with the needs of data users.
A consortium led by HUS Helsinki University Hospital has received significant EU funding for developing data collaboration between European Children’s Hospitals in a privacy-preserving manner. Progress in this area will help the development of new therapies for children, the assessment of pediatric care outcomes and the advancement of new technology solutions such as artificial intelligence in pediatrics. The project started in October 2023 and will go on until September 2026. It has been awarded a total funding of 7 M€ from the Horizon Europe programme and from the UK research funding agency.
According to Katariina Gehrmann, Director of Digital and Innovation Services at HUS New Children’s Hospital, the PHEMS project will enable European collaboration on health data by aligning ethical and legal requirements of leading European pediatric hospitals with the needs of data users. This ensures that researchers can benefit from rich datasets and advance scientific research in pediatrics while the patient’s rights and data privacy remain protected.
To achieve this, the project develops new technological solutions that facilitate authorized access to health data at multiple locations and advances federated health data analysis together with next-generation anonymization. In addition, the project develops shared rules and governance structures, which allow new partners to join and new datasets to be included in the ecosystem.
Senior Project Manager Jayden Khakurel from Spinverse and the team who were managing the PHEMS proposal preparation are proud to have contributed to this transformative PHEMS project. They genuinely believe in its immense potential to drive scaling up of multiparty computing solutions and the use of privacy-preserving health datasets in Europe to revolutionize pediatric healthcare. Future discoveries of new diagnostics, treatments, medicines that the project enables with the liberation of health data, outcomes in pediatric care will be enhanced. At the same time, PHEMS is pushing forward the use of innovative technologies such as AI in pediatrics. We are certain that this project will illuminate a brighter path for children's health across Europe.
Suzan Ikävalko, EU Research Funding Manager from HUS, expressed her appreciation for the collaboration with Spinverse. She stated: "Our partnership with Spinverse has been highly beneficial. Their help in project preparation has been invaluable. The opportunities that this project presents are truly exciting. I am eagerly looking forward to the significant, positive influence it will impart on pediatric healthcare."
The Consortium consists of six leading European pediatric hospitals from the European Children's Hospital Organization (ECHO) community and of leading-edge technical partners. The ECHO community advocates for children’s health and their access to the best quality care through the collaborative work of children’s hospitals.
The consortium hospital partners are HUS Helsinki University Hospital (Finland), Erasmus Universitair Medisch Centrum Rotterdam (Netherlands), Meyer Children's Hospital IRCCS in Florence (Italy), SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital (Spain), Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London (United Kingdom), Bērnu klīniskā universitātes slimnīca (Latvia) In addition to Childrens’ Hospitals, the PHEMS consortium includes technology partners: Tietoevry Finland Oy (Finland), Aridhia Informatics Limited (UK) and VEIL.AI Oy (Finland) and two professional services partners: The Hyve B.V. (Netherlands) and GENESIS Biomed (Spain).
More information: Press release by HUS on 11.10.2023
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