How Linksight Addresses the European Health Data Space (EHDS)

The European Health Data Space (EHDS), proposed by the European Commission, aims to create a common EU framework for secure access, sharing, and secondary use of health data. It defines clear roles for data holders, data users, Health Data Access Bodies (HDABs), and Secure Processing Environments (SPEs) — and establishes central principles around data sovereignty, minimization, and auditability.

Linksight’s architecture and operating model align exceptionally well with these principles. In this article, we outline how Linksight addresses the core EHDS requirements and how it could serve as — or underpin — a certified Secure Processing Environment.

How Linksight Aligns with EHDS Goals

Linksight was built from the ground up around the same principles that drive the EHDS: keeping data under the control of its holder, enabling secure analysis without centralizing sensitive information, and ensuring full transparency and auditability.

Data Sovereignty and Local Processing

Linksight’s architecture is built around local data processing at the source via “data stations,” ensuring that raw or identifiable data never leaves the data holder’s domain. This directly supports the EHDS requirement that data sharing should minimize data movement and preserve the control of the data holder.

Each participating hospital, municipality, or research partner remains a data holder under the EHDS, with Linksight acting as the technical facilitator that enables analysis without transferring raw data. This aligns closely with EHDS Articles 50–60, which stipulate processing within a secure environment controlled by or under supervision of the data holder.

Privacy-Preserving Computation

The use of Secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC) and homomorphic encryption ensures that joint analysis across multiple datasets happens without exposing the underlying data. This enables:

• Federated analytics and AI model training without centralizing data.
• Compliance with GDPR Art. 25 (data protection by design) and the EHDS’s privacy-by-design principle.
• Reduction of re-identification risk even in high-dimensional or longitudinal data, through technical enforcement of Linksight governance rules.

These features are especially valuable in cross-border secondary use scenarios — one of the EHDS’s most challenging operational requirements.

Immutable Audit Logging

Linksight’s immutable audit log offers traceability and transparency — key demands under the EHDS’s governance model. It allows both HDABs and data holders to verify:

• Who accessed what data and when.
• What analyses were executed.
• That no unauthorized data movement occurred.

This matches EHDS Article 56 on traceability and logging obligations for data access environments.

Interoperability and Modularity

Because Linksight is designed to integrate with existing systems via API and container-based deployment, it can be embedded into existing national or regional health data infrastructures — making adoption straightforward and non-disruptive.

Linksight as a Secure Processing Environment (SPE)

With some clarifications and extensions, Linksight could credibly function as an SPE, or form part of one. Key arguments:

• Meets the definition of a secure processing environment: computations occur within controlled, auditable nodes.
• Implements privacy-preserving techniques that exceed baseline anonymization and require less preparation work for data holders.
• Prevents raw data extraction — aligning with the EHDS requirement that data users can only obtain aggregate or anonymized outputs.
• Demonstrates accountability and compliance through audit logs and transparent governance rules.

Strategic Fit at a Glance

Conclusion

Linksight’s architecture and operating model align exceptionally well with the EHDS’s design philosophy — especially around data sovereignty, security, and compliance by design. Linksight could serve as or underpin a third-party operated certified Secure Processing Environment, offering EU-compliant infrastructure for secure secondary use of health data.

As the EHDS moves from regulation to implementation across member states, Linksight is positioned to become a cornerstone technology for making the European Health Data Space a reality.