A BDVA Healthcare Task Force expert group, working in different research fields pertaining to synthetic data, AI, data and privacy-enhancing technologies developed a new publication, focussed on synthetic data. Synthetic data is rapidly emerging as a transformative force in digital health, according to a new white paper published by the Healthcare Task Force of the Big Data Value Association (BDVA). The report highlights how the technology can unlock data access, accelerate Artificial Intelligence (AI) development and support more inclusive research and care.
The working group behind the paper, comprised of experts in healthcare and data science, outlines eight domains where synthetic data could drive innovation: virtual patients, data scarcity and bias mitigation, data sharing and collaboration, clinical trial innovation, AI fairness and performance, privacy-preserving research, system readiness and reliability, and workforce training.
Drawing on real-world use cases and state-of-the-art assessments, the paper details how synthetic data can address long-standing barriers in healthcare, including regulatory restrictions, underrepresentation and limited access to patient data. It also emphasises the role of synthetic data in enabling new, secure and ethically aligned forms of collaboration across the sector.
However, the report also identifies persistent gaps in research and policy. These include challenges around access to representative seed data, uncertainties in legal governance, the absence of benchmarking standards and the lack of sustainable regulated infrastructure.
To tackle these issues, the paper proposes a coordinated set of recommendations across regulation, technical development, governance and funding. Suggested measures include establishing shared assessment benchmarks and sandboxes, developing multimodal and explainable AI, clarifying legal frameworks, and investing in inclusive, privacy-enhancing technologies. The authors also call for secure federated data and learning ecosystems to underpin future digital health systems.
European funding programmes such as Horizon Europe, EU4Health and Digital Europe are highlighted as key enablers for advancing synthetic data initiatives that align with Europe’s health equity and innovation goals.
Together, these actions offer a strategic blueprint for embedding synthetic data into the European digital health ecosystem and infrastructure—building more inclusive, privacy-preserving and future-ready digital health systems.
The BDVA Healthcare Task Force brings together experts from the health and care sectors with the goal to create a platform and a network of collaboration within the BDVA community to identify key technologies and research trends, such as the use of synthetic data in the healthcare domain. The Task Force has also links to the pharma and drug development fields.