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Piloting the use of Federated Analysis to Enhance Privacy and Enable Trustworthy Access to COVID-19 Research Data

We are pleased to share the publication of the paper, “Developing a prototype for federated analysis to enhance privacy and enable trustworthy access to COVID-19 research data”, in the International Journal of Medical Informatics.

This paper outlines a collaborative effort during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic by the International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA), Health Data Research UK, SAIL Databank, Aridhia Informatics, and other partners working closely with researchers from the International Perinatal Outcome in the Pandemic (iPOP) Study. Together, we successfully piloted a federated network infrastructure that enabled secure analysis of sensitive health data without transferring it from the source. This proof of concept used aggregate-level test outputs from iPOP Study data to demonstrate how federated analytics can overcome cross-border governance and security challenges.

The paper highlights the potential of federated analysis networks to simplify governance processes, enhance data security, and provide access to previously inaccessible datasets, with an open standards approach that utilised GA4GH task execution service-based APIs.

This initiative helped demonstrate the feasibility and value of federated approaches for collaborative global health research and learnings from which are being used in initiatives such as the Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative’s Federated Data Sharing Appliance, the DARE UK Transformational Programme, and HDR UK’s broader Federated Analytics programme.

Read the full paper in the Papers & Publications section of the website.

To learn more about our ongoing work regarding federation, read our most recent blog on the topic.

Download Paper as PDF