Where is the Health Data Hub? This project to centralize several French medical databases for research purposes, controversial because of its hosting at the American Microsoft, has chained setbacks in recent weeks. The Health Data Hub has not been stopped, however, claims its president, Stéphanie Combes. “We have just validated an ambitious roadmap for 2022. Without denying the complex issues on the implementation of the project, the ambitions remain the same: to promote access to medical data by the research ecosystem and to play a leading role at the European level. »
The story of the Health Data Hub begins in 2018, when non-registered MP Cédric Villani submitted a report on artificial intelligence (AI). This recommends the creation of a platform “suitable for AI-related uses” where large sections of French health databases, very rich, but difficult to exploit by artificial intelligence algorithms, would be collected.
Shortly after its creation, in 2019, the project was “violently attacked” for having chosen Microsoft, considered more adapted to the needs, recalls Mme Combes. In question: the extraterritorial American laws which make possible in certain cases access to data by the authorities or the intelligence services. This reproach was reinforced in mid-2020, when European justice invalidated the legal framework allowing transatlantic data transfers. The government then promised to transfer the Health Data Hub to a service provider not subject to US laws by the end of 2022.
In the meantime, the project had to withdraw its request for authorization from the National Commission for Computing and Liberties (CNIL) in January. which would have allowed him to transfer medical bases permanently. The Secretary of State for Digital, Cédric O, then announced that the call for tenders for the new hosting would not be launched before the presidential election.
Study of offers from eight suppliers in progress
Today, M.me Combes assures that the Health Data Hub has done everything to prepare the transfer of data to a service provider other than Microsoft. In order to find a replacement, a study of the offers of eight suppliers, in particular French, must lead ” in the next weeks “. This should be ” update “ when will the hybrid offers of “cloud of trust”. Encouraged by the government, these combine a French company for hosting and an American player for software, like Bleu, created by Orange and Capgemini with Microsoft.
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