TrustNShare: Development of a
Blockchain-Based Data Trust Model for
Secure and Controlled Health Data Sharing
Grounded on Empirical Research
Hamza MAATOUK
a,1
, Sebastian USCHMANN
b
, Sven FESTAG
b
, Tim SCHNEIDER
b
,
Anna WEBER
c
, Ngo Manh KHOI
c
, Sven BOCK
c
, Stephan M. JONAS
a
, Cord
SPRECKELSEN
b
and Friederike KLAN
c
a
Institute of Digital Medicine, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
b
Institute of Medical Statistics, Computer and Data Sciences (IMSID), Jena University
Hospital
c
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Data Science
ORCiD ID: Sven Festag https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2507-5901, Stephan M. Jonas
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3687-6165, Cord Spreckelsen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
7301-1566, Friederike Klan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1856-7334
Abstract. Ensuring data quality and protecting data are key requirements when
working with health-related data. Re-identification risks of feature-rich data sets
have led to the dissolution of the hard boundary between data protected by data
protection laws (GDPR) and anonymized data sets. To solve this problem, the
TrustNShare project is creating a transparent data trust that acts as a trusted
intermediary. This allows for secure and controlled data exchange, while offering
flexible datasharing options, considering trustworthiness, risk tolerance, and
healthcare interoperability. Empirical studies and participatory research will be
conducted to develop a trustworthy and effective data trust model.
Keywords. Smart contracts, data trust, incentives
1. Introduction
Sharing health data is crucial for clinical decision-making, care coordination, and public
health initiatives. New techniques like differential privacy and distributed privacy-
preserving computing offer more control over the flow of information [1]. But current
data trust models lack transparency, making it difficult to fine-tune trustworthiness, risk
tolerance, and data release criteria [2]. The TrustNShare project aims to create a
transparent and flexible data trust model using blockchain and smart contracts to
facilitate secure and controlled data exchange, encouraging data sharing and promoting
optimal use scenarios for health data [3].
1
Corresponding author: Hamza Maatouk,Institute of Digital Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Venusberg
Campus 1,Building 74, 53127Bonn.Email:Hamza.Maatouk@ukbonn.de.
Healthcare Transformation with Informatics and Artificial Intelligence
J. Mantas et al. (Eds.)
© 2023 The authors and IOS Press.
This article is published online with Open Access by IOS Press and distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0).
doi:10.3233/SHTI230472
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