In health studies, data are collected to understand diseases and improve treatments. However, the reuse of this data is often restricted due to inadequate standardisation, as well as regulatory and technical hurdles. In order to make health data accessible and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable), Task Area 5 tests and implements the services and infrastructures developed within the framework of NFDI4Health in various Use Cases from scientific practice.

Clinical, epidemiological and public health studies typically generate structured and quality-assured health data that can be used to investigate the development and dynamics of diseases at the individual and population level as well as the effectiveness of preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Access to detailed information about a large and unselected number of participants and patients is crucial in this context. This is the only way to create risk profiles of these target groups in order to support personalised prevention and medicine and to find new intervention options that ultimately improve medical care and public health. Currently, more and more data is being made available in the form of large primary data collections, but also secondary data sources such as data from disease registers or health insurances. However, the findability, sharing, and reuse of this data for research purposes are currently limited for various reasons. These include:

1. Lack of standardised metadata for data discoverability and a wide methodological diversity in the identification and collection of health information across studies,

2. Incomplete knowledge about relevant studies and the type of data collected,

3. Regulatory, administrative, ethical, and legal challenges regarding data access and the merging of data across populations or data sources,

4. Lack of knowledge among potential data users in research data management, data preparation, and data analysis, and

5. Limitations in data analysis infrastructures for utilising study data.

Many of these challenges are already addressed in other working areas of NFDI4Health. Task Area 5 aims to implement or pilot developed solutions, such as services and infrastructure components, in specific Use Cases that reflect the core needs of health research. Overall, national health data can subsequently get FAIRer.

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