SYNDATE – Test platform for synthetic health data

Test platform for synthetic health data

Project duration

1.4.2023. – 31.3.2025

Source of funding

EAKR 2021-2027

Total funding

495 000 €

SYNDATE responds to companies’ need for product development based on health data. In the project, we produce a test platform that offers synthetic, but correct health data, which helps to solve problems related to the secondary use of health data.

Currently, product development based on information (data) in the health sector is carried out, either a) on the basis of completely artificial information, or b) on the basis of genuine health information. The first of these does not make it possible to produce high-quality solutions, because the content or structure of the information hardly corresponds to genuine patient data. The use of genuine health information is again strongly regulated, and in Finland a separate law has been established on the secondary use of (social) and health data (the so-called secondary law). This law identifies several different secondary uses of information, which include e.g. scientific research, statistics and development and innovation activities.

The privacy requirements related to secondary use are very strict, and it is not legal to offer commercial innovation activity more than statistical level sum information. It is possible to obtain unit-level information if the results are made available to everyone, i.e. it is innovation done through scientific research. Even then, sharing data between different operators requires standardization, obtaining data takes a long time, and the costs associated with using the data are high.

In the project, we use advanced modeling technology, thanks to which the produced synthetic health data is close in quality to genuine patient data. The methods we use include privacy-preserving features and enable the produced test materials to meet strict data protection criteria. In this way, synthetic materials can be made available to companies without heavy regulation related to secondary use.

The test platform and the synthetic health data offered through it enable the development of solutions based on health data, such as new types of artificial intelligence applications, in a highly regulated field, which is significantly more agile than the current one. Companies’ product development speeds up and related costs decrease. Along with companies, health service providers and patients also benefit from the solutions developed, because better treatment methods and solutions are created as a result of innovation.
The test platform for synthetic health data is a service aimed at companies and research institutions that strengthens the regional health sector ecosystem, Terveyskampus Turku, and supports research, development and innovation in the health sector on a national level. The focus of the activity is the company-oriented development of new health technologies. The test platform created as a result of joint development also opens a new avenue for projects between research institutes and companies. At the same time, SYNDATE develops the Turku region’s leading synthetic data expertise.