The research project Federated Secure Computing, funded by the Stifterverband, handles cancer patient data analysis in the European health data space across national borders without sharing any actual data, utilizing the modern cryptographic method - secure multiparty computation. The European research team includes scientists from LMU Munich, Germany, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, Italy, and cryptography experts from Cybernetica, Estonia. In a new pilot study, the researchers have now presented and tested an approach that overcomes the technical and legal challenges in the demanding context of clinical research on cancer patients while complying with strict European regulations on the protection of patient privacy and data protection.
The results of the study have recently been published in the journal npj Digital Medicine . Hendrik Ballhausen, the initiator of Federated Secure Computing at LMU explains how several partner institutions form a secure computer network: "Neither party has access to the others' data. End-to-end encrypted calculations take place on secret shares across the network.
The protocol is mathematically proven to ever only reveal the result of the joint calculation, but never the data of the individual patients." Health data from patients at LMU University Hospital and the Policlinico Universitario Fondazione Agostino Gemelli in Rome served as the data set. Specifically, the procedure benefits patients with adrenal gland tu.
