Health data -

HEALTH DATA

The State Data Agency (Statistics Lithuania) can provide health data for secondary use, such as scientific research, development of commercial products, precision medicine models, and policy making. This page provides the essential information about this process. To apply for access, fill out the form at the Official Statistics Portal: https://osp.stat.gov.lt/paslaugos-prasymo-pakartotinai-naudoti-sveikatos-duomenis-forma

Note: currently, only applicants that conduct their activity in Lithuania may apply. The application requires logging in through the Lithuanian E-government Gateway.

[email protected]

APPLICATION PROCESS

COSTS

The health data reuse service is paid. The fees are designed to recover the expenses of preparing the requested dataset and do not bring profits to the institutions providing the data. The overall fee structure is set in this Government resolution and this Law. The exact fee will be determined when evaluating the application, based on the number of work hours and computational resources needed and the cost of each resource at that time.

The price consists of:

Evaluation fee. Full evaluation of an application has a fixed fee of 618 Eur.
Data set preparation fee. A fee covering the Agency’s and data holders’ time spent retrieving the data, deidentifying it, transforming it as needed, and the related expenses. Depends on the type and complexity of the work required, but a typical application requires around 10–40 hours of work, priced at around 30 Eur/hour as of 2024.
Computational resource costs. In almost all cases, the data is provided in the Agency’s secure remote environment. Usage of its computing resources (CPU time) and file storage (disk space) needs to be paid for in advance. Initially, we offer a plan for 820 Eur, and if you require more resources than included in this, we will arrange a custom plan based on your needs.

Amendments of issued permits. Amending an issued permit has a fixed fee of 175 Eur. With an amendment, you may extend the permit’s duration, change the aim of the data use, add new users, but may not ask for additional data – that requires a separate application.

Examples:

Researchers request data on COVID-19 patients’ diagnoses and deaths for a scientific publication. Diagnosis records will be retrieved from the ESPBI IS system, deaths – from the Causes of Death Register, and provided in the Agency’s environment where regression analyses will be applied.

In total

1718 €

Evaluation fee

618 Eur

Data set preparation (simple)

10 hours x 28 Eur/hour = 280 Eur

Computing resources (Agency’s environment, basic plan)

820 Eur

A private company asks for records of prescribed pharmaceuticals and free-text case descriptions, in order to train a neural network for detecting dangerous drug interactions. Pharmaceutical records will be retrieved from IS “Sveidra”, case descriptions – from ESPBI IS system, and providing the unstructured text will require a complex de-identification process. Analysis will require GPUs, so the applicant was allowed to use own computing environment.

In total

3563 €

Evaluation fee

618 Eur

Dataset preparation (complex)

95 hours x 31 Eur/hour = 2945 Eur

Computing resources (will use own environment)

0 Eur

A hospital seeks to model its bed occupancy and requests weekly-renewed data from 6 different laboratories, linked with ESPBI IS drug prescription data. This is a long-term project (5 years) and will use a large amount of computational resources in the Agency’s environment. Prescription data is provided in a complex format requiring additional preparation. After 1 and 3 years from the start of the project, the hospital amended the users and aims.

In total

7308 €

Evaluation fee

618 Eur

Dataset preparation (6 simple sources, 1 complex)

(6 sources x 5 hours + 1 x 40 hours) x 32 Eur/hour = 2240 Eur

Computing resources (long-term project, frequent data updates)

4100 Eur

Permit amendments

2 x 175 Eur = 330 Eur

WHAT DATA CAN BE PROVIDED?

With some rare exceptions, it is possible to access most data related to health that is stored in state and other information systems, including ESPBI IS (“e-health”), National Health Insurance Fund system “Sveidra”, Causes of Death Register from the Hygiene Institute, and other sources.

Datasets that are already present in the Agency’s information system are listed in this website. To find out about data stored with other holders, we recommend searching for their system descriptions or directly contacting their representatives.