Architecting cloud-based infrastructure for scalable and secure health data storage

The protection of electronic health (eHealth) data is of utmost importance for individual patients and society as a whole. eHealth data systems must be designed in a way that data privacy, confidentiality, and integrity are preserved. By considering patient data as sensitive data and applying the data protection principles at a very early stage of the technology life cycle, privacy and confidentiality will be ensured throughout the data storage and processing. The most sustainable way of achieving these ends is by means of safe and sustainable digital infrastructures that allow individual patients to control the lifecycle of their own patient data, and that is particularly important for sensitive or classified data. Current eHealth applications are rarely equipped with effective data protection mechanisms. The desired result is that individuals control their own sensitive data through trust-building relationships. Achieving this sustainable form of safe and secure health data storage cannot be done by mere statements about data protection. Instead, we need to build secure and sustainable cloud-based digital infrastructures complying with data protection and cyber security requirements.