System Architecture of a European Platform for Health Policy Decision Making: MIDAS.

Background: Healthcare data is a rich yet underutilized resource due to its disconnected, heterogeneous nature. A means of connecting healthcare data and integrating it with additional open and social data in a secure way can support the monumental challenge policy-makers face in safely accessing all relevant data to assist in managing the health and wellbeing of all. The goal of this study was to develop a novel health data platform within the MIDAS (Meaningful Integration of Data Analytics and Services) project, that harnesses the potential of latent healthcare data in combination with open and social data to support evidence-based health policy decision-making in a privacy-preserving manner.