New Health Data Gateway Strengthens Denmark's Innovative Edge within Life Science & Digital health
Over the last decade, Denmark has continued to strengthen digital coherence in the healthcare sector through ambitious political strategies and forward-thinking national health reforms. Denmark has a long tradition for collecting health data and is internationally recognised for its comprehensive national health registries, including decades of longitudinal data, biobank samples, and hospital-level clinical insights. But collecting and storing data is not enough to boost innovation.
Therefore, the “Strategy for Life Science towards 2030” placed an enhanced focus on better use of the unique Danish healthcare data to excel ground-breaking research and strengthen innovative use of artificial intelligence. A robust, safe and coherent digital infrastructure is essential to carry out these grand ambitions, and that’s where the new National Health Data Gateway come into play.
“Denmark already has one of the most digitised and interconnected health systems globally. This initiative reinforces our ability to lead in precision medicine and AI-powered healthcare.”
“Single point of entry” to Danish health data
Today, scientists have to go through several different public entries to access health data which complicates research projects and hinders new ideas. With a DKK 200M donation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is supporting the establishment of a new national “single point of entry” gateway to health data across Denmark.
The new health data infrastructure is being developed as a joint public initiative and will offer secure, GDPR-compliant access to anonymised health data as it integrates registries, biobanks, and clinical data in one streamlined platform.
The National Health Data Gateway will be supported by a new supercomputer, building on the expertise from the National Genome Centre (NGC). NGC has, since its foundation in 2018, been responsible for storing and handling genomic data from Danish citizens and will from 1 July 2025 be an integrated part of the Danish Health Data Authority.
"Danish researchers can access the data if they have approval from the scientific ethics committee system. They must then apply for access and have it granted. If you are a foreign researcher, you must collaborate with a Danish researcher, and the same applies to companies. To gain access to the National Genome Centre’s genomic database, the research must fall within the field of ‘personalised medicine’ and be of significant societal relevance."
A technological and ethical gateway
The Danish health datasets are of high quality and uniquely suited for research as they cover all areas of the healthcare sector, comprise data on the entire Danish population from cradle to grave and allow for all data to be linked via a unique personal identifier.
The National Health Data Gateway will serve as a technological and ethical bridge between this invaluable data pool and the global health innovation community, giving researchers an opportunity to explore datasets and request access through a transparent, digital interface.
“The National Health Data Gateway offers foreign researchers and companies a unique opportunity to access the vast Danish health dataspace enabling them to be at the frontier in health technology innovation.”
Supported by supercomputers
Last year, the Gefion supercomputer was launched and with NGC´s new supercomputer, Denmark is further strengthening its position as one of the world’s most advanced countries for digital health innovation.
The Danish supercomputing capacity will be put to good use as the new digital infrastructure will also function as a unified analysis platform, providing a secure digital environment dedicated to advanced health data analysis.
With the launch of a new National Health Data Gateway, Denmark aims to make high-quality Danish health data more accessible to researchers, companies, and public authorities – all within a secure, ethically governed, and user-friendly framework.