The HD4DP application enables data providers to collect data.
The medical and professional secret is protected at various levels and through principles such as encoding, encryption, and user-acces management. The combination of these elements guarantees so-called "end-to-end security".
During the data collection process, which is done by this application, all data is securely (= anonymized) transferred to Sciensano, with the use of e-health box:
The data provider never receives the coded identifiers
eHealth has never access to medical data or metadata
Healthdata.be never receives the original identifier, but can reconcile different entries
An overview is given in the video:
We provide more documentation of the different functions and possibilities in the different phases of data collection in the HD4DP application.
For each patient record, you have to provide a VCF file. You have to transfer the VCF file via File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). You can request your credentials to the SFTP server of healthdata.be by contactingsupport.healthdata@sciensano.be and ngs.healthdata@sciensano.be .
Healthdata provides 2 options for using its SFTP transfer:
A manual file transfer using a web page
using a web page
using a SFTP client (e.g. Filezilla, Winscp etc.)
An automated file transfer using a script:
developed by the local Information Technology (IT) Department of your organization;
developed by Healthdata
Requirements of the VCF File
The file must not contain patient information within the VCF header
The VCF file content (the list of mutations) should reflect the select “NGS indication” put in the NGS registry and the biomarker put in PITTER
The VCF filename transferred though SFTP must be exactly the same as the filename filled out in the patient record
File Manual Transfer
Hereafter, find the 2 manual ways for transferring a VCF file using the HDUpload Webpage and a local SFTP client. . Find below the 4 steps for using the HDUpload Webpage
filling out the password in the field SFTPPassword
select the file to transfer by clickingon the button labelled Choose File
transfer the file to healthdata.be by cliking on the button labelled upload File
OR Find below the steps using a SFTP client
install a free-of-use SFTP client on your computer, the most popular ones are Filezilla and Winscp.
make sure to have the port 2222 opened (contact your local IT department to configure this)
connect to the healthdata.be SFTP Server using credentials provided by support.healthdata@sciensano.be, using the SFTP client you will choose by entering your credentials:
Host Name or Public Address IP of the healthdata.be SFTP server
User Name
Password
transfer your file from your local system to the healthdata.be SFTP server
move the files to the Finished Folder when the SFTP client will notify the completion of the file transfer. This last action indicates our system that the file transfer was successful, and that the subsequent files upload can be done. Then, the whole VCF file will be uploaded.
File Automated Transfer
For the automation of the file transfer, a collaboration between your IT Department and Healthdata is required. We want to empahize the 2 requirements to meet for enabling a fully automated data flow from the sequencer to Healthdata. That will create System-To-System communication of VCF files using the SFTP protocol. This requires the automation of 2 flows:
from the sequencer (System 1) to a specific folder in the local infrastructure of your organization. This automation has to be implemented by your local IT department in collaboration with Healthdata.be
from a specific folder in the local infrastructure of your organization to Healthdata.be. This automation can be implemented by your local IT department or Healthdata.be
